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Title page of the first edition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, 1818.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

… nineteen, published the gothic novel Frankenstein. It has become a classic of English literature. Title page of the … shortly after being born and her half-sister Fanny Godwin committed suicide, a couple of months later Percy’s wife committed suicide, and just before the publication of the …
President Woodrow Wilson with his wife, Edith, in June 1920.

Making it into the White House

Review of Fit for the Presidency? Winners, Losers, What-Ifs, and Also-Rans, by Seymour Morris Jr. (Lincoln: Potomac Books, 2017)
… of the presidency itself has changed, making his comparisons something of an apples and oranges exercise.  … Morris claims – evidence? – that RFK was insincere when he “visited burned-out ghettoes to ensure that he would get 90 … silly. Finally, Morris's “big idea” in this book is that common sense, cordiality, honesty and the ability to …
A U.S. military vehicle crossing the Iraq border in March 2003.

U.S. Credibility at Stake in Iraq

… that Iraq was a significant threat to the international community. Why is that? Because, the United States — from … The problem was the second attack never occurred. Naval commanders couldn’t even confirm whether their ships had … on a war it cannot justify. Christopher Gerteis is a visiting professor of East Asian history at the University …
Engraving of Roman plague doctor, Schnabel c.1656.

Quarantino: Plague and the Origins of Social Distancing

… strength and quantity, and are well mixed.” Humoral theory, combined with ignorance of germs, created a situation ripe … drink vinegar, mercury, or arsenic. Others ate garlic or a compound made of iron oxide clay, aloe, myrrh, and saffron. … “generated such horror that children did not dare to visit their dying parents, nor parents their children, but …
Statue of Peter the Great in Moscow

The Past and Future of Russian-American Relations

… one. We should not panic if Russia, in the short-term, becomes more antagonistic toward Western values and interests. … more important, the current round of reforms is part of a complex and ongoing process of assimilation and rejection of … to the West for the technologies and ideologies needed to compete in European international politics. In the usual …
President Ronald Reagan during an interview in 1988.

Marking a Tragic Anniversary

… legacy with which Americans will sooner or later have to come to terms: today we live in a society of greater … critically weakened the one entity best equipped to combat growing income inequality in the United States: organized labor. …
Power lines.

Blackouts: Symptoms of Our Dependence

… year of anticipating “Y2K” has served to remind us that the computers we call “personal” actually answer to specialized … American life has resulted in decreasing measures of both competence and control by ordinary citizens over the vital … lever that permits drivers to roll up windows by hand.) Visit the hospital, and you will confront a forbidding array …
Afar community animal health worker describing the appearance and characteristics of rinderpest in cattle (photo credit: ILRI/Jeff Mariner).

The Second Disease Eradication: Rinderpest

… a stunning achievement and that description of how it was accomplished feels especially poignant today when faith in … Clement XI had sent Lancisi to investigate. The physician recommended culling and quarantines . Governments across … has been humbled and our progress facilitated by this awful visitation. The advent of the white man had else not been so …
The Romanov Family

The Romanov Tercentenary: Commemoration, History, and Power

… the Russias.” Services in Moscow capped a series of events commemorating the Romanovs’ tercentenary, in what proved to … deemed oppositional, the tsar brusquely cut him off. He welcomed supplicant peasant elders, but Kostroma was part of a … workers were carefully muzzled in advance of the tsar’s visit. Celebration of the Romanovs’ heritage could draw …
Taliban fighters patrol the streets of Kabul in August, 2021.

Who are the Taliban?

… the Taliban now confront the challenge of governing this complex country and establishing a stable government. Since … the United States as guests of UNOCAL corporation. They visited Texas, Nebraska, and Washington, D.C. A number of … to the obligation the movement owes its martyrs.  Revisiting the history of the Taliban phenomenon offers a …

From Fat Cats to Egg Heads: The Changing American "Elite"

… at … well, any number of things. Lumping them together, the commentariat called all these angry voters “populists” and … ( bottom right ). Whatever else they may or may not have in common ideologically, these populists share an antipathy … as a snob and elitist ( right ). But “elite” has become an epithet lately in our political discourse. The …
Seal of the University of California.

How Does a Nation Protect Itself in Wartime?

… to act decisively, during World War I President Wilson took command of telegraph and telephone systems, issued executive … Patriotic citizens assembled armed patrols to guard their communities. What is proposed now is a shadow of those … against them. Bush’s speech to Congress and the nation, his visit to a Washington mosque and his meetings with Muslim …
In an address to a joint-session of the US Congress on September 20, 2001, US President George W. Bush demanded that the Taliban deliver Osama bin Laden and destroy bases of al-Qaeda.

Bush Should Consider the Fate of Wartime Presidents

… nation must choose between alternative ways of life, “communist or free,” Truman declared. Truman shook off fears … taught the nation that in a cold war the only possible outcome is stalemate, not permanent safety. As dreams of … figure. The next time Bush goes home to Texas, he should visit Johnson’s final resting place and ponder deeply. It is …
French soldiers overrun Chinese troops during the 1860 campaign in the Second Opium War.

The Second Opium War

… of Qing laws prohibiting the drug. After one Chinese trade commissioner captured and publicly destroyed British opium … ship seized by China on suspicion of piracy—reducing its complex causes to only its precipitating event. … events entirely. In the 1950s, for example, observers of communist China described Chairman Mao Zedong ’s campaign to …
1992 portrait of General Wesley K. Clark.

Wesley Clark: In the Tradition of Generals Who Make Peace

… officers as presidential contenders. Generals who have become president (there were ten, six of them notable as commanders) have usually succeeded by presenting themselves … does he hunger for war. Historian David Greenberg is a visiting scholar at the American Academy of Arts and …
Judge Charles W. Pickering, Sr.

Ghosts of Mississippi Haunt Pickering’s Nomination

… The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will vote early in March on the Bush … to the 5th Circuit of Appeals, based in New Orleans. The committee should stop this nomination in its tracks.   Why … does not belong on the Circuit Court. Joshua M. Zeitz is a visiting assistant professor of history at Brown University …
William Shatner as Captain Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock pose behind a model of the starship Enterprise.

Star Trek

… sixth series will debut in 2017) hundreds of novels and comic books, and countless toys, games, uniforms and other … third season cast ( right ). Star Trek and its fans have become one of the archetypes of both the undying multi-media … thinking of leaving Star Trek when Martin Luther King Jr. visited the set. He insisted that she remain on the show …
Bird's-eye-view of the 1993 border blockade enacted by CBP Border Patrol agents in El Paso, Texas as part of Operation Hold the Line.

Fortifying the U.S.-Mexico Boundary: The 1993 “Hold the Line” Experiment

… also proposed deploying advanced drug detection machines to combat the influx of fentanyl, which he claimed was … for those living in the cities and resulting in fatal outcomes for migrants in transit.   OHL presents a critical … under specific provisions. These cards enable Mexican visitors to stay in the United States up to 72 hours for …
Crowd photo at the 2017 Women's March in Washington DC

The Way We Never Were (Prologued, Season 1, Episode 1)

… Revolution--and learn that women in America have never been completely united.  … Trump. Think pieces blossomed overnight, denouncing the complicity and betrayal of white women to the feminist … to Seneca Falls, lived on the Seneca reservation. She was visiting the Seneca reservation in early summer and was …

The International History of the U.S. Suffrage Movement

… Ida B. Wells-Barnett with her four children in 1909. The complex international connections and strategies that … across national borders allowed suffrage movements to overcome political marginalization and hostility in their own … they embarrassed President Woodrow Wilson in front of a visiting Russian delegation, whose wartime cooperation he …
Demolition of Alexander III Monument, Moscow 1918

Russia’s February Revolution and the Precarious Politics of Nostalgia

… To delay is impossible.” The tsar did not reply, instead complaining that “Again that fat-belly Rodzianko has written … and the death penalty. Practically overnight, Russia had become, at least in Lenin’s famous description, “the freest … entry into the First World War in 1914 . As those who have visited Russia know well, the First World War can seem …
Free speech march at Ohio State University in the mid-20th century

Politics and Protest on College Campuses

… But how does political engagement on campuses today compare to the history of American campus activism, … protests can teach campus activists, administrators, and communities today. For more on OSU campus protests in the … Brenna Miller    Welcome to History Talk , the podcast that brings together a …
President Lyndon B. Johnson giving a speech about the Voting Rights Act with a statute of President Abraham Lincoln in the background.

The Republican Party and African-Americans: The Real History

… to give black men full citizenship. For that much, Bush and company can claim a worthy lineage. But as early as 1876 — … the Democrats' political machines eagerly absorbed the newcomers. Republican machines, by contrast, reacted coolly … be a courageous act indeed. Historian David Greenberg is a visiting scholar at the American Academy of Arts and …