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Gunslingers in the 19th century. This is the Ned Christie posse.

Gun Control and the Old West

… another gun control bill, shot full o’ holes. In fact, most historians see the cowboy of the Old West as THE … support among society’s leaders from the states that formed part of the Old West. The actual Old West pioneers of … to bear arms, but the record puts them behind “moderate, common-sense measures” for gun control — the very kind …
Billboard of Nursultan Nazarbayev in Kazakhstan, 2015.

Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and the Democratization Shell Game

… widely seen as shams; their respective heads of state hold most of the political power, while citizens have few … both countries appear to break from the autocratic past and complicate our understanding of their political future. In … when it was set to assume the position. In reality, the opposite occurred. By the time Kazakhstan assumed the …

Syria's Islamic Movement and the 2011-12 Uprising

… obvious importance of the meeting—Russian President Dmitry Medvedev presciently called it the last chance to avert a … population walked out of the Istanbul meeting as well, complaining that the SNC had no intention of setting up a … early in the last century, a variegated Islamist movement—most notably the Muslim Brothers—has played a central role …

The Dominican Republic and the United States: A Baseball History

… Over the past century, baseball has become a truly global game. The sport debuted at the Olympics … time, these groups morphed into company teams sponsored most often by rum, sugar, and fruit enterprises. A Cuban … group of Major Leaguers including Babe Ruth, for example, visited countries like Japan in 1934 not just to spread the …

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 … (agrobiodiversity). As we sit at the table to give thanks, most of us eat the same commercial variety of turkey—the … and serve as safety deposit boxes. Other similar off-site conservation mechanisms include botanical gardens, DNA …
photo of Dan Snow

Best in History Online: Dan Snow's History Hit

… 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 … War I, and fly in military aircraft, while also picking up medieval dance tips. The frequent, diverse topics and …
Mount Holyoke College

Historical Truth and Personal Truths

… Like most American historians, I've been repeatedly asked these … consequences of them–such as whether Ellis should be drummed out of academia or stripped of his many honors–which … as much troubled by dishonesty and other human shortcomings as other occupations. When scholars make mistakes, …
A Mobil gas station in 1982.

A Case for Gasoline Price Controls

… successfully cut back many consumer prices. Bush frequently compares the war in Iraq to World War II. Last month, at a … that Americans consider gasoline prices to be one of the most pressing issues that Bush must address. However, the … of many commodities. Consequently, the OPA simply froze most prices at their March 1942 level. Although some …

As Cuba and the United States Reengage: The Presence of the Past

… without understanding what preceded it. “There is a complicated history between the United States and Cuba,” … on every count except perhaps the one that mattered most: the attainment of national sovereignty and … curb Cuban policies. On the contrary, it produced the opposite effect, and served further to deepen the estrangement. …
Cover of Pay for Play A History of Big-Time College Athletic Reform by Ronald A. Smith.

Wagging the Dog

Review of Pay For Play: A History of Big-Time College Athletic Reform, by Ronald A. Smith (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2011. xii + 344 pp.)
… of a permanent facility in which to play football.  When completed, Harvard Stadium cost over $300,000, held 40,000 … futility of "big-time college athletic reform," at least as most academic critics of contemporary intercollegiate … have been responsible for most of the excesses needing reformed.  College presidents and governing boards, while often …

Savage Gladiators vs. Civilized Amateurs: Rome and Athens in American Sports Culture

… In fact, as surprising as it may be to sports watchers and commentators, how Americans talk about sports today is a … product of a Victorian narrative of ancient sport that claimed that the Greeks defined and practiced amateurism … for entertainment and profit. Football is the sport most frequently compared to Roman gladiatorial combat. It is …
Crucifixion of Saint Peter by Caravaggio (1600, Cerasi Chapel).

Persecuted Christians?

… exaggeration, and Cardinal O’Connor should know better. Most people in the United States have at least some passing … of the early martyrs are wildly exaggerated, if not completely fictional. But later, better documented deaths … attack in the United States. Jerry Falwell recently claimed that “most hate crimes in America today are not directed …

The Road to Same-Sex Marriage: Lesbian Mothers, Gay Fathers, and the American Family

… of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere—organizations that had come out of gay-father activism of the 1980s—wrote a brief … draw invidious distinctions between families headed by opposite-sex parents and families headed by same-sex parents, … challenged the definition of family as heterosexual. And, most recently, it includes the story of large-scale …
Cover of "Our Hemisphere"? The United States in Latin America, from 1776 to the Twenty-First Century by Britta H. Crandall and Russell C. Crandall.

Episodes of Ambivalent Empire

Review of “Our Hemisphere”? The United States in Latin America, from 1776 to the Twenty-First Century by : Britta H. Crandall and Russell C. Crandall (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2021)
… the actions of the United States. In doing so, the authors mostly synthesize secondary sources, including much of their … century, officials sometimes demonstrated a broad commitment to republican and democratic principles. For … into Mexico). Other times, those who stood to gain the most from the use of force, such as powerful businessmen, …
An Armenian woman leans over her dead child near Aleppo, Syria,1915.

On the Armenian Genocide

… On April 24, 2015, much of the world will commemorate the centennial of one of the most highly contested events of the twentieth century:  the … two literatures talked to the already converted; they confirmed what people wanted to believe and did not challenge …
September 17: The United States Constitution is signed in Philadelphia.

The Constitution, Congress and the Power to Declare War

… The Founding Fathers balanced the power of the president as commander-in-chief with that of Congress, the people’s … representatives — the one to command the nation’s armed forces, the other to decide when the United States goes … that last forty years create a collective amnesia. Most people in government — indeed most Americans — have …
Scene in Ukraine

Ukraine, In a Nutshell

Review of The Conflict in Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know, by Serhy Yekelchyk (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015).
… section of the book is cleverly framed as an answer to the most relevant questions surrounding Ukraine’s … the reader.   The reviewer’s photos during the peaceful component of the pro-democracy EuroMaidan protests.  December 2013. As current news broadcasts and websites talk of the plight of today’s Crimean Tartars, many …

Avoiding the Scourge of War: The Challenges of United Nations Peacekeeping

… On July 1, 2011, the United Nations welcomed its newest member. South Sudan's January referendum on … unfolding in Somalia symbolizes some of peacekeeping's most abject failures. Twenty years, two U.N. peacekeeping … reforms, civil reconstruction, protection of heritage sites, and financial reform. Peacekeeping missions became …
The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) was one of the bloodiest in history: 8 million people lost their lives in Europe's deadliest religious conflict.

Secularism, Past and Future

Review of Secularism: Politics, Religion, and Freedom, by Andrew Copson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017)
… arguments for atheism. What interests Copson is to find the most fruitful relationship between religious belief, … French scholar Jean Bauberot. Bauberot sees three essential components to a secular society: 1) the separation of … tumult of French politics in the 19th century, the French commitment to what they call laïcité remained. By the Third …
Shells of burnt-out busses after a suicide bombing

The Terrors of Suicide Bombing

… Patrick Potyondy  Welcome to History Talk , the history podcast for everyone, … of diluted or crazed individuals just as they hold an almost blurred fascination for their willingness to kill … and Leticia Wiggins . Find our podcasts and more at our website Origins.osu.edu and you can find us on Twitter, …
The Humboldt Current: Nineteenth-Century Exploration and the Roots of American Environmentalism, by Aaron Sachs Book Cover

The Humboldt Current: Nineteenth-Century Exploration and the Roots of American Environmentalism

Review of The Humboldt Current: Nineteenth-Century Exploration and the Roots of American Environmentalism, by Aaron Sachs (Viking Books, 2006)
… All these places, and undoubtedly more besides, were named to honor a German naturalist who made exactly one brief … early in the nineteenth century, but whose adventures and accomplishments were so much admired they made him an … century, von Humboldt has faded from our imagination. Most people have some passing familiarity with Darwin; one …
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 … labor that went into this volume will amaze you, but Appy’s most outstanding skill might be his editing. The transcript … current events. Belew convincingly argues that the media, parts of the federal government, and many Americans …