Chinese President Xi Jinping, bottom left, speaks during the Opening Ceremony of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China at The Great Hall of People on October 16, 2022 in Beijing, China.

Autocratic Capitalism: An Introduction

Americans are taught that capitalism and democracy go together like motherhood and apple pie. It may be time to unlearn that lesson.
San Pier Maggiore altarpiece

When the Bishop Married the Abbess

When a new bishop was installed in the see of medieval Florence, he was also expected to marry—at least symbolically—the abbess of San Pier Maggiore.
A map of the world showing the extent of the British Empire in 1886

A Primer on Settler Colonialism

What is this “settler colonialism” that’s become all the rage? Let’s take a closer look.
Atlas Mountains

Modern Nomads in the Atlas Mountains

For pastoralists who live and work in the mountains of Morocco, the lifestyle is difficult but worthwhile. It’s also threatened by economic and climate change.
Operation Morning Light team members, dressed in specially designed arctic clothing, begin the painstaking process of searching the area with hand-held radiation detectors.

The Trouble with Reentry

Reentry of space junk in the 1970s forced First Nations communities into a reckoning with Cold War geopolitics and a burgeoning envirotechnical disaster.
Temüjin being proclaimed as Genghis Khan in 1206, as illustrated in a 15th-century Jami' al-tawarikh manuscript.

How to Govern Like a Mongol

The leaders of the Mongol empire never abandoned their nomadic lifestyles, but they created organizational structures capable of ruling a huge part of the world.
Demonstration of Champagne winegrowers against government measures. Men and women walk through the streets of Bar sur Aube with banners and placards. One of the placards reads 'Champagne ou la Mort'. France, 1911.

Terroir Terror: The 1911 Champagne Riots

An environmental crisis and a dispute over regional boundaries sent both rioters and rivers of champagne pouring into the streets of Aube.
President Nicolas Maduro on August 2, 2024 at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela.

Democratic Backsliding

Political scientist Javier Corrales uses Venezuela as a case-study of democratic backsliding that’s been initiated by the winner of an election, not the loser.
Aerial view of Malabo´s harbour, Malabo´s Island, Equatorial Guinea

Grappling with Equatorial Guinea

A brief history of Africa’s most brutal dictator and what his legacy means for Equatorial Guinea today.
Title page from Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, 1899

The Legends of Charles G. Leland’s Aradia

Leland’s interest in magic and folklore led him to northern Italy in search of remnants of “the old religion” of witchcraft.