Current Events that Relate to History
Recently Published
View AllOriginal features and excerpts of new books
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Features
AI Is an Anti-Primary Source Machine
Real voices from the past are threatened by chatbots designed to amplify — and ultimately become — the loudest voices in the room. -
Features
Regime Change
A coin featuring the likeness of President Trump doesn’t have many precedents in American history. The ancient Roman opponents of Julius Caesar could explain why. -
Features
How “History” Became Central at the Supreme Court
Originalists and historians use the past to accomplish very different tasks.
In the Newsletter
View All EditionsCurated collections that explore a different theme each week
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Book ReviewNation Of Bondholders
It turns out you can trace America’s 2008 financial crash, in a roundabout way, to 18th-century Prussia.Defector -
Book ReviewHow Tech Rules
The AI boom is only the latest stage in Silicon Valley’s long history of creating and expanding intellectual monopolies.New York Review of Books -
Book ReviewThe Emptiness of Malcolm Gladwell
The king of the big idea has a problem with facts.UnHerd -
CommentHistory Is Back. Fukuyama Is Neither Surprised nor Thrilled.
It is fashionable to mock "The End of History" as an uncritical celebration of neoliberal capitalism, but its analysis of right-wing populism proved prescient.Jacobin -
CommentThe Mother of Black Los Angeles Finally Gets Her Due
Biddy Mason’s story is the story of a city's transformation—And of a remarkable woman whose legacy largely disappeared.Zócalo Public Square -
Q&AThe Decades-Old Roots of Trump’s War on Iran
An interview with historian Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi about the generations of US presidents who have tried to destroy the Iranian regime.The Nation -
exhibitCollege Costs
Historical perspectives on the money that fuels American higher education, and Americans’ attempts to reckon with the power dynamics that result.