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Outdoing Panama: Turkey’s ‘Crazy’ Plan to Build an Istanbul Canal

… about a major project that his government had imagined for Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey—and Europe. It … on the Bosporus—a strait crowded not only with urban commuters and pleasure craft, but Russian oil tankers … country," Erdogan said. In many ways, Erdogan is but the latest ruler over the centuries to transform the city on the …
Fidel Castro during a visit to Washington.

Why Economic Sanctions Often Fail

… Yet there's every reason to believe that the president's visit, even coupled with European sanctions, will not … With Bush's presidency close to an end, time is running out for concrete agreements between his administration and … to Iran in 2007. Switzerland's Swiss EGL energy trading company recently completed a forty-two billion dollar …
Six founders of the Algerian FLN: Rabah Bitat, Mostefa Ben Boulaïd, Didouche Mourad, Mohammed Boudiaf, Krim Belkacem and Larbi Ben M'Hidi, 1954

The Evian Accords: An Uncertain Peace

… Emmanuel Macron provoked controversy in France during a visit to Algeria. There, he pronounced French colonialism to have been a “crime against humanity.” For historians of colonialism, this may not seem like a … That paper, simply entitled “Declarations Drawn up in Common Agreement,” was signed in a town on the French side …

Learning to Love the Nuclear Pariah: From China to North Korea

… An estimate compiled by the nation’s intelligence services reaches the president’s desk, disclosing that a formidable and reckless adversary in Northeast Asia will … Khrushchev and Chinese leader Mao Zedong during a 1958 visit in China ( left ). Captioned “We use the skill of the …
Glacial melt from Myrdalsjökull glacier in the south (jökull means glacier in Icelandic). Note the alluvial cones formed by volcanic ash and sediment.

A Postcard from Reykjavik: Iceland’s Volcanic History

… Humans weren’t around when volcanoes formed Iceland’s unique island landscapes some 20 million … been interwoven with human history. Although the data are incomplete, over 170 volcanic eruptions have been recorded in … of almost 10% per year since 2000. The number of annual visitors doubled between 2000 and 2010, when half a million …
Nanci Pelosi standing at a podium with many people behind and beside her

The Contentious ACA

… healthcare policy in the United States—specifically the Affordable Care Act, also known pejoratively and positively as … healthcare or is it more about health coverage for all? How long has it taken policymakers in the past to … Leticia Wiggins   Welcome to History Talk Produced by Origins , a project of the …
Andrés Manuel López Obrador in front of Mexican flag

"Juntos Haremos Historia": AMLO and Mexico's Fourth Transformation

… in his promise to inaugurate the country's "fourth transformation." In doing so, he has positioned himself squarely in the pantheon of Mexican reformers. The phrase is a reference to the march of Mexican … social democracy (after independence in 1810, the liberal reforms of the 1850s, and the Mexican Revolution in the early …
Headline in The Philadelphia Inquirer of November 16, 1919, reporting the first use of cloture by the United States Senate.

The Founders Cared about the Majority Principle

… 24 it will have to decide whether to accept the rules reform introduced by Senators Tom Udall, Tom Harkin, and Jeff … would eliminate filibusters to prevent legislation from coming to the floor for debate, while retaining filibusters … possibilities for obstructing unwanted legislation through unlimited debate, which the absence of a "call the question" …
An image of Kuwait’s oil fields after they were set ablaze by retreating Iraqi soldiers during the First Gulf War

Oil Empires and Petro-Anarchies

Review of Empires and Anarchies: A History of Oil in the Middle East, by Michael Quentin Morton (London: Reaktion Books, 2017)
… through the lens of the region’s largest industry: oil.  Before taking up writing, Morton served as a lawyer for 30 … had obtained independence. Morton tracks major individuals, companies, and governments taking part in the search for … defined the region’s nationalist movements. While Morton points to some of these effects, he minimizes the impact …

Population Bomb? The Debate over Indian Population

… than our entire population," Bush argued that the demand for "better nutrition and better food" among this massive … the early nineteenth century, when the British East India Company controlled an increasing swath of territory across … People eating, people washing, people sleeping. People visiting, arguing, and screaming. People thrusting their …
President Joe Biden with other foreign leaders, sitting around a table with others looking on

How does Ideology Drive U.S. Foreign Relations?

… The United States was a nation forged in the ideological fires of a democratic revolution … leaders and citizens ever since have denied or rejected a foreign policy guided by ideology. Why? If ideas and … Distinguished Lecturer, Nichols is a frequent public commentator on U.S. politics and foreign policy. Nichols is …
Grover Cleveland, painted by Anders Zorn in 1899

The Politics of Civility

… the “uncivil” nature of our recent political debates. For Carter and others, attacks on the personal character of … recede. In their place emerged a fierce brand of political combat that regarded private life as a legitimate field of … and Woodrow Wilson  escaped from the sort of humiliation visited on Grover Cleveland. Neither did insiders remark …
A Uyghur hunter in Kashgar, 2005.

Xinjiang: From Autonomy to Dystopia

… not been much better. Police stations—“convenience security points”— sit on every other street corner and in all … to see if they carry unauthorized content or “harmful information.” Xinjiang became a dystopian surveillance society … more recently, of settler colonialism. It is also based on competing visions of history and of who belongs to the land. …
A solemn crowd gathers outside the Stock Exchange after the crash. 1929.

This Year’s Equation: 1920 + 1932 = 2008

… To make the case that an election is momentous, you need to compare it with previous critical ones. The most important … do that by running against “the Sixties.” The GOP used that formula to win an overwhelming victory in 1972. Watergate … needed reforms. Robert S. McElvaine, a writer for History News Service, is a professor of history at Millsaps College …
A 1939 reconstruction of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.

The Treaty of Waitangi

… free consent of over 500 rangatira (chiefs) and the tribal communities they represented. A 1939 reconstruction of the … national day, Waitangi Day now needs to serve as a symbol for all these different communities. In contrast with many … , it never experienced a war of independence. There are no points in time when New Zealand formally separated itself …
We Are Our Mountains (Tatik u Papik) Monument, Stepanakert.

A Postcard from Nagorno-Karabakh

… One of the most beautiful parts of the former Soviet Union—Nagorno-Karabakh—has recently been … historical monuments and churches.  Sadly, it has become the center of a major feud between Armenians and … Children of Nagorno-Karabakh. At the time of this writer’s visit in 2014, life in the capital and other cities appeared …

The Kids Aren’t Alright: The Policymaking of Student Loan Policy

… took out a student loan, averaging over $5,000 a year. Therefore, around 10 million people took out student loans last … to the cost saving measures of the FDLP, especially when compared to the money funneled to private banks through … by private corporations. Only by addressing all of these points will any new configuration of the student loan system …
Taiwanese flags on display for National Day, 2018.

The Taiwan Strait Conflict

… Chinese navy of the main maritime shipping routes and chokepoints surrounding Taiwan would put the entire  global economy in disarray and for years to come. Estimates of possible losses differ, but they are in … The split opened the door for Richard Nixon’s historic visit to the PRC in late February 1972, a trip facilitated …
Marchers for the Equal Rights Amount, holding banner that reads "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex"

The Equal Rights Amendment: Then and Now

… , and Katherine Marino . Find out why it stalled and how for nearly a century the ERA has garnered both passionate … Brenna Miller  Welcome to History Talk , the podcast that brings together a … happen legislatively and congressionally if we do have to revisit this 35 state versus 38 state timeframe. I agree, of …
Cover of The Invisible Bridge by Rick Perlstein

There Are No Heroes Here: American Malaise in the Seventies

Review of The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan, by Rick Perlstein (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2014)
… profession, but one with a keen eye toward the historical—completes his trilogy chronicling the rise of what has been … referred to as “modern conservatism” or the “New Right.” Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the … Reagan, also an unknown to much of the country. Perlstein points out that both candidates shared the same political …

Making Sense of the 'Hermit Kingdom': North Korea in the Nuclear Age

… significant opposition, the Bush administration quickly complied with the terror-list demand (in return for certain limited assurances about disarmament, … dispute was now resolved. "I am profoundly disappointed," complained Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. "By …
President George W. Bush sitting at his desk across from his dogs in 2005.

He’s Just a Prez Who Can’t Say No

… Bush’s refusal to send bills back to Congress helps account for the rapid growth in non-discretionary spending and the … veto power to provide a check and balance against these forces. Certainly, a president who has not said no once in … York College in York, Penn., and a writer for the History News Service. …
Portrait of Jimmy Carter from 1979.

The Nobel Committee Speaks to America

… 11, the Norwegians awarded the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize to former President Jimmy Carter. By giving him this honor at this time, the Nobel Committee seized the opportunity to express its concern over … initiated toward Iraq. Both the timing and the citation accompanying the prize hinted at more than Carter's undisputed …