Republican troops of the International Brigades at the beginning of the Nationalist attack on the capital during the Spanish Civil War, Spain,1936

Growing Guerrilla Warfare

American resistance to the Nazis had its roots the skills of Spanish Civil War veterans, who were recruited by the OSS when they returned from Spain.
Sheep are seen while being transported in Fremantle Harbour on June 16, 2020 in Fremantle, Australia.

The Long History of Live Animal Export

The practice of live animal export from Australia is controversial and complex, and it has a longer history than you might realize.
Relief from a wall of the northern palace of Nineveh, Iraq. 645-635 BC

Haunted Soldiers in Mesopotamia

In ancient Mesopotamia, many medical disorders were attributed to ghosts, including mental problems faced by men who had spent years at war.

The British Empire’s Bid to Stamp Out “Chinese Slavery”

The mui tsai custom, which the British saw as a Chinese practice, relied on connections made across the multiracial landscape of colonial Malaya.
1936 map of The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Tramping Across the USSR (On One Leg)

Historian Sheila Fitzpatrick explores the limits of the Stalinist system through the biography of a marginal figure, one Anastasia Emelianovna Egorova.
A drawn portrait of Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Pakistan’s Ambiguous Islamic Identity

Pragmatism, not faith, drove Muhammad Ali Jinnah to lead the call for the founding of the new Islamic state of Pakistan.
A statue of Zheng He in Jurong Gardens, Singapore

Zheng He, the Great Eunuch Admiral

Captured, castrated, and forced to serve the Hongwu Emperor, Zeng He subsequently led a massive Ming fleet of treasure ships across an ever-expanding empire.
Broadside on the Anglo-Dutch wars, attacking Cromwell's aggression against Holland, and domestic tyranny; Cromwell stands in centre, with the tail of a serpent, made up of the gold coins of the Commonwealth

When All the English Had Tails

Where did the myth that English men (and probably women) were hiding tails beneath their clothing come from? And what was that about eggs?
Sun Yat Sen

Remembering Sun Yat Sen Abroad

Museums around the world honor the history of the revolutionary, but as Singapore’s Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall shows, those memories aren’t easy to read.
The rugged coast of the Isles of Scilly, England, U.K.

Life in the Islands of the Dead

Though part of the mainland county of Cornwall, the Scilly Islands offer visitors an encounter with history and the environment like no other.