Features

Long-form articles by historians

Showing 169 - 192 of 205
President Obama signing the new student loan legislation in March 2010.
The Kids Aren’t Alright: The Policymaking of Student Loan Policy
Jenni Williams (Left) and Magodonga Mahlangu (Center) of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) receiving the Robert F. Kenndey Human Rights Award from President Barack Obama in November 2009.
The Other Half of the African Sky: Women’s Struggles in Zimbabwe
Soccer fans, painted in the colors of South Africa's flag, celebrate the coming of the 2010 FIFA World Cup to South Africa.
The Soccer World Goes to South Africa: Sport and the Making of Modern Africa
President George W. Bush signs "No Child Left Behind" into law in 2002.
Updating ‘No Child Left Behind:’ Change, or More of the Same
In 2005, Dr. Terrence Tumpey, a Center for Disease Control Microbiologist, examines recreated 1918 Pandemic Influenza Virus to help understand its particularly deadly effects.
Influenza Pandemics Now, Then, and Again
A sign illustrating Level 5 Water Restrictions in Goulburn, New South Wales, 2006, during the worst of Australia's decade-long drought.
Dry Days Down Under: Australia and the World Water Crisis
A collection of packaged food items.
Feast and Famine: The Global Food Crisis
British scientist Charles Darwin.
Charles Darwin’s American Adventure: A Melodrama in Three Acts
Jaycee Dugard was found in August, 2009 18 years after her abduction. While most child abductions by strangers do not end so well, historian Paula Fass points out that stranger abductions comprise only a small percentage of child kidnapping cases even though they receive the lion's share of media attention. Fear over stranger abductions has grown in the United States since the 19th century, and often results more from general fears about society than the actual safety of individual children.
Child Kidnapping in America
Stalin's boots are all that remain of his statue in Budapest.
1989 Twenty Years On: The End of Communism and the Fate of Eastern Europe
Images like these, of starving children and a malnourished population given to periodic famines, offer a human face to the long standing debate about whether India is "overpopulated" or "underdeveloped".
Population Bomb? The Debate over Indian Population
A U.S. Tank in Karbala, Iraq, May 2004. The American experiences in Afghanistan and especially Iraq over the past eight years have forced the U.S. military to rethink how it approaches counterinsurgent warfare. After some successes in Iraq, will the new counterinsurgency doctrine also work in Afghanistan?
From Baghdad to Kabul: The Historical Roots of U.S. Counterinsurgency Doctrine
Two Afghan women dressed in bright blue burqas. Today the burqa stands as a symbol of the status of women in Afghanistan, but for much of the twentieth century the history of women in this war-torn country led also toward greater rights and public presence.
The Long, Long Struggle for Women's Rights in Afghanistan
The National Bank of Slovakia, with an image of the 1 Euro Coin posted on the building. Despite their shared history, Slovakia and the Czech Republic have taken considerably different approaches to participation in the EU, redefining what it means to be European in the process.
Becoming 'European:' The Diverging Paths of the Czech and Slovak Republics
A marooned boat on what used to be the shore of the shrinking Aral Sea. After their 1991 independence, there was a guarded optimism surrounding the five countries of Central Asia. Today, despite the region's strategic and petroleum importance, the future of these new states appears beached by struggling economies, corruption, authoritarian politics, and the global drug trade.
Building a New Silk Road? Central Asia in the New World Order
A 17th-century map depicting the locations of the Periplus of the Erythraean
Pirates of Puntland, Somalia
The Wilds' former home in Detroit, MI.
Requiem: Detroit and the Fate of Urban America
A protester in New York City after the recent passage of Proposition 8 in California, limiting the marriage rights of same-sex couples in that state.
The Real Marriage Revolution
The Newborn Monument in Kosovo.
Kosovo's Year Zero: Between a Balkan Past and a European Future
A refugee camp holding thousands of displaced Darfurians/Sudanese in the aftermath of war in the western part of Sudan.
'The World's Worst Humanitarian Crisis': Understanding the Darfur Conflict
British PM Tony Blair and U.S. President George W. Bush meet in November 2004.
With a Little Help from Our Friends?: The Costs of Coalition Warfare
Juche Tower in Pyongyang, North Korea.
Making Sense of the 'Hermit Kingdom': North Korea in the Nuclear Age
This young girl is a refugee from South Ossetia.
Clash in the Caucasus: Georgia, Russia, and the Fate of South Ossetia
Republican Presidential Candidate Sen. John McCain and President George W. Bush.
Punishing the Past: Presidential Elections in Times of Crisis (1932, 1968, 2008)