Çatalhöyük: Its Story Continues
Our understanding of the Neolithic city of Çatalhöyük continues to evolve as archaeologists challenge inherited biases in the face of new material evidence.
Wilhelm Reich: Twice Burned
A psychoanalyst and physician, Reich fled the Nazis only to be detained by the US as an “enemy alien” during World War II. And then came the sexual revolution.
Recovering the Malay Manuscripts of South Africa
Descendants of those trafficked from Southeast Asia to South Africa by the Dutch, Cape Malay Muslims use surviving kietaabs to connect to their heritage.
Was the Story of Cortés Plagiarized from Arabic?
The mythic stories of the Spanish conquest of Mexico seem to have been largely taken from earlier tales of the Muslim conquest of southern Spain.
The Supernatural Horses That Fascinated Chinese Emperors
In the second century BCE, Han Dynasty Emperor Wu so desired a herd of “blood-sweating” horses from Central Asia that he was willing to wage war over them.
How IBM Took Europe
After World War II, IBM worked to influence the new balance of power by locating facilities for the production of its electric typewriter across Europe.
Legionnaires’ Disease, an Illness of Affluence
Legionnaires’ is the first communicable disease of modern wealth, thriving in the interstitial spaces of our built environment.
Luddites on Trial
In 1812, a burst of anti-Luddite panic law-making in Great Britain added to an already confusing series of statutes that addressed property crime.
A Postcolonial Preah Vihear
The debate over who “owns” Preah Vihear dates to the early twentieth century, when the French government drew the border between Cambodia and Siam (Thailand).
Chimney Sweeps and the Turn Against Child Labor
The slowly expanding protections of “climbing boys” reveal the changing attitudes to child labor in Ireland during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.