The Sociopolitical Impact of A Passage to India
E. M. Forster’s novel captured not only the tensions between colonizers and colonized but also the fraught internal politics that shaped India’s fight for independence.
An Age of Fantasy Politics
Tropes from science fiction and fantasy have become fodder for political rhetoric and action on all sides in the twenty-first century.
Nationalism Before It Was in the News
Nationalist rhetoric has surged to the center of US politics, but what do Americans actually mean when they say “nationalism” in the twenty-first century?
Hoe History: Complex and Knotted
The plantation hoe, a simple, ubiquitous, and historically ignored farming tool, was specific to the Atlantic colonial project, shows historian Chris Evans.
“Simple, Wholesome Food” for a New American Nation
In the aftermath of the Revolutionary War, Americans faced understandable anxiety about what their society would look like—and what they should eat.
A Presidents’ Day Roundup
Who—or what—do Americans celebrate on the third Monday of February?
Valentine’s Day in Egypt
In recent decades, celebrations of Valentine’s Day have become common in Egypt. But, as anthropologist Aymon Kreil found, opinions on the holiday are mixed.
Praising Washington in Lincoln’s Day
At the time of the Civil War, many Americans revered the nation’s Founding Fathers, and both supporters and opponents of slavery recruited them to their sides.
Origins of the UN: The US and USSR
The genesis of the United Nations came from the nations united as Allies against the Axis powers, but who really pushed the institution into being?
The Origins of the “Dinosaur Renaissance”
John Ostrom’s ideas were part of the so-called Dinosaur Renaissance, a paradigm shift that posited dinosaurs as the warm-blooded ancestors of birds.