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The front of the National Security Administration in Fort Meade, MD

America’s Big Brother

… Leticia Wiggins  Welcome to History Talk, produced by Origins , a project of the … We hope you enjoy what you find. Patrick Potyondy  Welcome to the inaugural relaunch of the Origins podcast. I'm … Surveillance , which is found on the origins.osu.edu website say hello, Dave. David Hadley  Hello. Leticia …
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 … her feverish story: ten days after her birth her mother died from puerperal fever, at seventeen she eloped with … snow-covered peaks where Frankenstein and his creature coincidentally bump into one another and clash. The story …
Logo of General Motors.svg

The Federal Government Should Hold On To General Motors

… in spring 2009. What was then the world’s largest auto company had been hemorrhaging money for years, losing an … astonishing $69.6 billion in 2007-2008. By early 2009, the company faced bankruptcy, with no private investors willing … National Philadelphia” and director of American Culture Studies at Bowling Green State University.   …
A memorial to Holocaust victims in front of a Jewish cemetery.

A Postcard from Berlin: Confronting a Troubled Past

… dot the landscape and stand beside opera houses and statues commemorating prominent figures of German cultural heritage. … not shy away from engaging with it on a critical level. The complicated and controversial history of the 20 th century … and live. One of the better examples is the “Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas” or the Memorial to the …
The Thinker by Auguste Rodin

Graduate Students Discuss Public Intellectualism

… as the case might be. If we really want to engage the community with historical thinking, a better model might be … facilitator who makes the past relatable to a broad audience. While most academics may not have access to a … television channels to hundreds, as well as thousands of websites and blogs, means that it may be a mistake to refer …
Secretary of State John Kerry continued his meetings in Lausanne with Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif. Under Secretary Wendy Sherman and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz are participating in the meetings.

Iran’s Nuclear Diplomacy

… have met periodically in Vienna in an attempt to accomplish what was long considered a near-impossible task. … weight of historically tense U.S.-Iranian relations was overcome and the nearly impossible realized in the form of the … in Iran—who was effectively inspiring Iranian soldiers fighting in the war. Those soldiers, the article …
Photo of William Colby

Casting the Long Shadow of the CIA

Review of Shadow Warrior: William Egan Colby and the CIA, by Randall B. Woods (New York: Basic Books, 2013)
… William Colby has become a more or less forgotten figure in the turbulent … WWII, Colby was reassigned to the Office of Strategic Services and dropped into France prior to the Normandy … Vietnam. The South Vietnamese regime headed by Ngo Dinh Diem was problematic from the American perspective. Because …
A U.S. FBI agent sorts through rubble. (Photo by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation)

The 1998 East African Embassy Bombings

… but at the time it seemed like a relatively minor threat in comparison with established groups like Hamas and Hizballah. … And the attack was executed in a manner that would soon come to characterize al Qaeda operations. The trucks were … and absorbing much of the force of the blast. This lucky coincidence, coupled with the fact that the embassy was …

Dispatches from the Armenian Revolution

… role in the mobilization of the population. Indeed,  some commentators noted  that it had more in common with “democratic movements in Latin America [in the … for corruption and the rise of oligarchs . Armenian soldiers in Karabakh in 1994 using Russian AK-74 assault …
STS-116 mission specialists, NASA astronaut Robert Curbeam and ESA astronaut Christer Fuglesang perform extravehicular activity (EVA) during construction of the International Space Station.

Facing Opportunities and Obstacles in Space

… the development of new technologies to reduce the cost and complexity of operating in space.   These proposals, … are rockets infallible: Insurance rates for the launch of a communications satellite can be 10 to 15 percent of its value. In comparison, the cost of auto insurance for a teenager seems …

From Gaza to Jerusalem: Is the Two State Solution under Siege?

… demands to inspect the cargo they carried, and Israeli navy commandos boarded the vessels before the boats pulled into … The conflict's causes are (it almost goes without saying) complex, combining conflicting land claims of rival … and this interpretation finds support in close studies of the diplomacy of the late British Mandate period. To …
illustration of Prince George IV

Unspoken Anxiety or Vivid Metaphor?

Review of Itch, Clap, Pox: Venereal Disease in the Eighteenth-Century Imagination, by Noelle Gallagher (New Haven: Yale, 2019)
… (syphilis), artists explored social phenomena including commercialization, globalization, gender, race, and class. … Gallagher describes how scarring from venereal disease was compared to battlefield wounds as marks of honor, and were … Gallagher describes how scarring from venereal disease was compared to battlefield wounds as marks of honor. At the …
Cover of Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present by Christopher I. Beckwith.

Between the East and the West

Review of Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present, by Christopher I. Beckwith (Princeton University Press 2009)
… separated peoples with the "Central Eurasian Cultural Complex." The crucial element of the Complex is the ruler and his comitatus, a group of warriors … into the declining Roman empire. Beckwith describes medieval feudalism, characterized by the special status of the …
Captured soldiers along the march with their hands tied behind their backs

The Bataan Death March

… the surrender of tens of thousands of U.S. and Filipino soldiers to the Japanese in the Philippines stunned the … the mercurial personality of General Douglas MacArthur, commander of the U.S. and Filipino forces. Overconfident … later they were on quarter rations. (Troops in intensive combat require 3,500 calories per day. U.S. and Filipino …
Pope Francis holding Bible

The People's Pope and the Changing Face of Catholicism

… how his actions fit into the Church's traditions and its commitment to social justice. Listen and explore hundreds of … Leticia Wiggins   Welcome to History Talk the history podcast for everyone by … Trinity or, you know, belief in Jesus As the Son of God who died for people's sins or any of these kind of what I would …
A map of northern Ireland

Ending the War in Northern Ireland

… is over. There will be celebrations, and peace will be welcomed by the ordinary people of Ulster. But as the great … poet William Butler Yeats once observed, sometimes “peace comes dropping slow.” History stands like a ghost at the … at Auburn University and a writer for the History News Service. …
Chinese tanks in Beijing in 1989

Honoring China’s June 4th Martyrs

… What can and should members of the international community do to honor 1989’s Beijing martyrs? Not … version of events, which erroneously states that brave soldiers and traitorous troublemakers were the only ones who … to get these details right. Failure to do so does a disservice to the memory of those martyrs who were not …
President of the United States Ronald Reagan in a briefing with National Security Council staff on the Libya bombing on 15 April 1986.

The National Insecurity State

… expands our list of enemies and defines any potential competitor as a mortal threat. The national insecurity state … is enough. Ira Chernus is a professor of religious studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder and a writer for History News Service. … History News Service
General Idi Amin in August, 1973.

Idi Amin's Coup d’État, Uganda 1971

… When Idi Amin, commander of the Ugandan Army, seized power in Uganda on 25 … state. His putatively socialist economic policies had become widely discredited. As a result, Amin’s declaration … seizure of power by a supposedly apolitical professional soldier. However, neither patriotism nor altruism motivated …
This painting, which dates from 1859, reimagines the toppling of the equestrian statue of George III in New York City. Erected in 1770, the statue featured the regent garbed in Roman military regalia on horseback, in the fashion of Marcus Aurelius. It is doubtful that Native Americans, women and children were in attendance at this episode of iconoclasm by the Sons of Liberty.

Ten Memorable Monument Takedowns in History

… that of Nero’s by Vitellius. Damnatio memoriae was most common after regime change. Note however, that the names of … Iconoclasm was outlawed. The restoration of icons is commemorated today as the “Feast of Orthodoxy.” 3. A Papal … troops overtook the rebellious city of Bologna, il papa commissioned Michelangelo to carve his likeness. The bronze …
Tanks and soldiers in parade in Pyongyang

North Korea: The Myth of a Hermit Kingdom

… Jessica Blissit   Welcome to History Talk , the podcast that brings together a … relations, and director of the Institute for Korean Studies.   Dr. Mitch Lerner   Thanks for having me.   Brenna … Blissit. Song and band information can be found on our website. You can find our podcast and more on our website at …
A traditional glass of Weissbier

Keeping Beer “Pure”: The 1516 Reinheitsgebot

… barley ( left ) and hops ( right ) are the acceptable ingredients in beer according to the  Reinheitsgebot.   Half a … the price of beer per Maß (a Bavarian liter) and to limit competition for cereal grains used to bake bread. A … newly unified Germany. A member of the Bavarian parliament coined the term “ Reinheitsgebot ” in 1918 during a …
The Beatles arrive in 1964 to meet their new fans in America.

50 Years Ago: the Beatles, Rock, and Race in America

… would help define American life for generations to come. In 1964, the relatively new musical genre of rock and … America.   In the early twentieth century, white Americans coined the term “race music” to describe the blues and jazz … left to hold it up. By the early 1960s, Buddy Holly had died in a plane crash, Elvis was making movies, Chuck Berry …