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Colombia: On the Brink of Peace with the FARC?

… June 23, 2016, while most of the world was awaiting the outcome of the Brexit vote, another major historical event was … Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos and the supreme commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia …
Refugee tents in Piraeus port.

A Postcard from a Piraeus Refugee Camp

… one day after the author's arrival. ( United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees ) We came to Greece with only a … We found people sleeping in tents underneath shipping compartments or on meager strips of grass, a mere stone's … around them, the port continued its normal function as a commercial and passenger hub. More than once, I saw …
American Flag with 15 stars

Best in History Online: The Washington Post's "Made By History"

… we like to take a moment to highlight fantastic history sites from around the web. These are websites that – much like Origins – seek to bring history into … the section is to show what historians do. The page aims to combat the tendency to use history as "a tool to advance …

Time It Was: 1968 Around the World

… I’ve read about it, 1968 was quite a year. Writers have compared it to the most dramatic moments in modern history— … , 1989 . In the United States, the turmoil of ’68 probably compares to 1861 and 1919. There was an A-list of nearly … measure of the Sixties, the publication of the Kerner Commission report on urban disorders, and Black Power …
Marina Silva (PSB)

10/21/2014: Top Ten Origins: Brazil's Presidential Elections

… economically most important countries in the world, the outcome of these elections is significant not just for … world recognizes Brazil for its fútbol, carnival, and the upcoming 2016 Olympics. But, to understand this landmark … During the "Lost Decade" of the 1980s Brazil owed foreign creditors $105 billion, but by 2009 Brazil provided the …
Marines from 1st Battalion 7th Marines enter a palace during the Battle of Baghdad.

Iraq War a Major Departure in American Foreign Affairs

… the Soviet Union, the United States was not a preemptive combatant. It was Joseph Stalins Soviet Union that blockaded … enough or fought with pure motives, but the historical record shows that we have forgotten a valuable precedent …

Who's not to Blame in the South Korea-Japan Spat?

… Korean President Moon Jae-in on August 2, 2019. “We have come this far today by overcoming countless hardships. Just … States occupied the south. Korea became perhaps the first site of confrontation in the new Cold War. In 1948, … became a democracy in the 1990s with the end of military commander-turned-president governance in the 1990s. At the …
Destruction in San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake.

Another Pearl Harbor? Not by a Longshot

… Still, some have tried. The most irresistible historical comparison is to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on … victory. Few Americans in 2001 can expect a similar outcome. When considering sheer carnage, some might be tempted … in San Francisco claimed an equal number of victims. These comparisons end with the numbers, however, because unlike …
Monti's parents receive his Medal of Honor from President Barack Obama during a ceremony in the White House, September 17, 2009.

Leave the Medal of Honor Alone!

… whether there is an inadvertent subjective bias amongst commanders that has contributed to the low numbers of awards … stories remain largely unknown among Americans, and are not recorded in school or college history textbooks.   The …
book cover of Empire of Cotton - A Global History

Top Ten Origins: Summer 2018 Must Reads

… The joy of reading comes in all seasons, but many people specifically like to … editor of Cosmopolitan magazine Helen Gurley Brown deserves credit as one of the pioneers of second-wave feminism … the Vietnam War and the 1996 Oklahoma City bombing. To her credit, Kathleen Belew only briefly references the present, …

China Dreams and the “Road to Revival”

… 29, 2012, newly appointed General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Xi Jinping gave a speech that would … can be heard on Dragon TV; and state-sponsored websites devoted to the China Dream litter the Internet. The … national museums of Europe and the United States. As a site signifying both China’s past and its aspirations to …
Dolley Madison, 1804, by Gilbert Stuart.

Women’s History and a Woman’s Subtle Power

… a black president at the nation’s helm, even the most glib commentators can justify focusing on black history. But … of a first lady. She was the first wife of a president to command the unofficial sphere of power. During her tenure, … Washington, then, means not merely examining the official records. For historians, watching what women do, uncovering …
Agincourt: Henry V and the Battle that Made England, by Juliet Barker Little, Brown and Company book cover.

Agincourt: Henry V and the Battle that Made England

Review of Agincourt: Henry V and the Battle that Made England, by Juliet Barker Little, Brown and Company (New York, 2006)
… to attack. She also makes good use of the English exchequer records describing the preparation for the campaign. With … unalloyed sense of justification: She announces that the outcome of the battle of Agincourt showed "God had chosen to … During the campaign, Henry issued a challenge to single combat to the dauphin ; Barker goes to great lengths to …

The Summer of ’10: Federal Power, Local Autonomy, and the Struggle over Immigration Policy

… Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund and others had already commenced litigation. As summarized by the United States in … an alien's unauthorized attempt to solicit work, and the commercial transportation of unlawfully present aliens. And … law enforcement agency, with skyrocketing budgets and new records for arrests, detentions, and removals set virtually …
Stamp commemorating revolution in Iraq

Iraq's 1920 Revolution

… A commemorative 1965 Iraqi stamp marking the 45th anniversary … Basra, aside from the pivotal city of Hilla where British commanders prepared to make a last stand on the road to the … era, erased the contributions of Shi'i leaders and gave credit for initiating the uprising to a secondary Sunni …
map of Yugoslavia

What Victory in Yugoslavia May Mean for Future Wars

… to support their own operations, but Army Air Force commanders tried instead to amass all the planes they could … is that what we have seen in Yugoslavia is likely to become the pattern for future U.S. interventions. But there is …
Waiting for a Chinook, by C.M. Russell. Overgrazing and harsh winters were factors that brought an end to the age of the Open Range.

Dot-Coms and the Great Cattle Die-Off

… reward for reasonable risk. We're talking about the dot-com industries of the '90s, aren't we? Not this time. We're … based on common sense, whether their subjects be web sites or cattle herds. The great market crash of Old West … no more than it seems to matter now: you just employed on-site cattle bosses (pixel bosses?) to handle that. Just as a …
a Galapagos sea turtle swimming in the ocean

What’s “Natural” on the Galapagos Islands?

The youngest, westernmost islands are still volcanically active and are thought to be no more than 700,000 thousand years old.
… devoid of animal or plant life. This initial isolation, combined with its location at the confluence of three …
Sir Christopher Wren

The Society That Started It All: The Origins of Modern Science

Review of The Royal Society and the Invention of Modern Science, by Adrian Tinniswood (New York: Basic Books, 2019.)
… illustrious astronomer and architect Sir Christopher Wren, credited with designing many iconic buildings across Britain … their innovative methods to their revolutionary journal of record, The Royal Society embodied modern scientific … to elevate them to an esteemed position in the eyes of competing Oxbridge scientists, derisive Anglican clergy, and …

Conserving Diversity at the Dinner Table: Plants, Food Security, and Gene Banks

… farmed no longer exist. Four centuries later, we have come to depend increasingly on only a handful of commercial … This package was in turn supported with state subsidies, credit, and price controls. The Green Revolution reflected … and serve as safety deposit boxes. Other similar off-site conservation mechanisms include botanical gardens, DNA …
Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism: A Woman's Crusade, by Donald Critchlow Book Cover.

Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism: A Woman's Crusade

Review of Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism: A Woman's Crusade, by Donald Critchlow (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005)
… movements; and the third being "crib-sheet books, the compilations, quote books, 'dictionaries' and … quick-witted, charismatic and intelligent; she has received credit for almost single-handedly halting the Equal Rights … by arguing that grassroots activism, centered on anticommunism, played a central role in the rise of the American …
European Union flag

The EU: Past, Present, and Future

… a century ago. Today, the EU faces an unprecedented combination of challenges, including a lingering economic … Patrick Potyondy   Welcome to History Talk the podcast that brings together a … Sokolsky. Song and band information can be found on our website. You can find our podcasts and more at our website