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June 4th, 2014, at Hong Kong’s Victoria Park (Photo by the author)

Remembering Tiananmen: The View from Hong Kong

… In between memory and forgetting, there is commemoration . On June 4, 1989 a protest in Beijing’s … in Chinese society. In imperial times, the upright official was to remonstrate his lord; in the eleventh … cemetery in Chongqing is chained and locked, and gravesites are carefully watched. One recalls from the Maoist era …
Three 10th Mountain Division Ski troopers above Camp Hale in the Pando Valley, Colorado in February, 1944.

Skis, Samba, and Smoking Snakes: An Unlikely World War II Partnership

What happened when glacier-goggled American ski troops and samba-loving Brazilian soldiers fought side-by-side halfway across the world?
… in a stalemate with Axis troops north of Rome. With a commanding view of the narrow approach to the Po River … the men of the 10th Mountain Division proved themselves in combat. With an audacious single-file night climb up the … between these two units in Italy.  On June 29, 1945, an official directive arrived at 10th Mountain Division …
John Filo's iconic photograph of Mary Ann Vecchio kneeling over the body of Jeffrey Miller

Kent State after Fifty Years

… antiwar movement, Black Power, and the generation gap had come even to Ohio. As the iconoclastic journalist I.F. Stone … The Friday night ruckus surprised hapless University officials. Local leaders insisted that “outside agitators” … Guard moved on campus and pushed students from the central Commons back toward the dorms. Having done so, the Guard’s …

Two Popes and a Primate: The Changing Face of Global Christianity

… of 2013. Thanks to the explosion of electronic forms of communication, even since the election of Benedict in 2005, … like-minded believers, whether or not they share the same official creeds or denominations. Agreement on matters like … ornate cathedral became popular viewing on YouTube and news sites on the web. For Copts, however, it was God who made …

Kosovo's Year Zero: Between a Balkan Past and a European Future

… spelled out, in English, the word Newborn . Fireworks accompanied live appearances by pop stars and elected officials. The Serbian government had been bracing for this … thousand demonstrators, some of whom vandalized local sites associated with those countries that supported …
Three Afghan police trainees, sitting on ground with guns

Afghanistan: Past and Prospects

… NATO “officially” ended its combat operations in Afghanistan in … Crews ,  Scott Levi , and Alam Payind about Afghanistan’s complex history to ask what the past of these peoples and … Patrick Potyondy   Hello and welcome to History Talk from Origins: Current Events in …
Coach Bob Knight holding a chair

Bob Knight: A Latter-Day MacArthur?

… Bob Knight, nicknamed "The General," for defying university officials and for violating a "zero tolerance" policy … rash act against a national celebrity. Meanwhile, Knight complained that he was a victim of changing expectations … "his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty." He visited New York City, where 7.5 million people gathered to …
Logo of General Motors.svg

The Federal Government Should Hold On To General Motors

… Most journalists, federal officials, and General Motors (GM) executives are … 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 …
Person holding sign that reads "Stop Voter Suppression"

From Poll Taxes to Partisan Gerrymandering: Voter Disenfranchisement in the United States

… to include many more citizens since 1776, these gains have come haltingly and unevenly. Even as women gained suffrage, … polls in many parts of the country for decades. And elected officials have long meddled with district boundaries to … voter suppression continue to affect electoral outcomes today? Listen in to find out. To learn more about the …
Cover of The Young Turks' Crime against Humanity: The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire by Taner Akçam

The Crime That Dare Not Speak Its Name

Review of The Young Turks' Crime against Humanity: The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire, by Taner Akçam (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012)
… the courage to privilege truth seeking and challenge the official narrative of the Turkish government has been … to produce genocide. These include the Young Turks' intense commitment to the homogenization of Anatolia (a development … on the role of religion, not simply ethnicity, as a major component in the homogenization policies of the Committee of …
Glacial ice on Lake Baikal

Climate Change and Human Life

… Leticia Wiggins  Welcome to History Talk , produced by Origins: Current Events … we will end with the Anthropocene. So this will be an official change, recognizing that the degree of human impact … Wiggins. Song and band information can be found on our website. You can find our podcasts and more at our website, …
Flag of Israel with landscape of Israel in the background

Leaving Zion: Jewish Emigration from Palestine and Israel after World War II

… the Jewish homeland, many Jews instead saw the country as a site of displacement or a way-station to more desirable … Dr. Nicholas Breyfogle   Welcome to Leaving Zion: Jewish Emigration from Palestine and … resettlement of Jewish refugees after the war, it was the official policy of the Joint not to assist those leaving the …
American Anti-Slavery Society, 1837

Revisiting Long Histories of the Reparations Debate

Review of Reparations for Slavery and The Slave Trade: A Transnational and Comparative History, by Ana Lucia Araujo (New York City: Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017)
… enslaved Africans generated tremendous wealth for an elite community of slave owners, slave traders, and political … enslaved individuals and their descendants petitioned for compensation, recognition, and material support, known today … the Association faced increasing opposition from federal officials who sought to undermine the operations of the …
Senator Barack Obama

Memorandum to Sen. Obama: How to Run

… your candidacy for the Democratic Party’s nomination is official. Washington’s successful Chicago mayoral campaign … to get voters registered. He realized that if he were to become the city’s first African American elected mayor he … demonstrates the distance that the people of Chicago have come since Washington’s election. Like it or not, though, …
West Berliners stand amid the rubble of WWII and watch U.S. Air Force transport planes land at Templehof Airport during the Berlin Airlift in 1948.

The Berlin Airlift

… On May 12, 1949,  the Soviet Union officially lifted its blockade of  West Berlin , allowing … new runways in both major West Berlin airports just to accommodate the increased traffic from the large, heavy, … of Britain in the Berlin Airlift" "The Berlin Blockade Revisited" …
George W. Bush and Al Gore

Bush v. Gore Twenty-Five Years Later

… call “the law of unintended consequences.” That phrase has come to be understood as a warning that intervention in a complex system tends to create unexpected and often … undesirable results.   The U.S. Constitution is one such complex system, and making changes to it can sometimes …
A tank destroyed during Operation Iraqi Freedom

Why We Should Leave Iraq Now

… in Iraq: the longer we stay, the stronger our enemies become. We cannot defeat either the insurgency or the civil … the defeated Ottoman Empire after World War I, but British officials ignored the ethnic and religious antagonisms … unable to halt the violence. Yet we insist that Iraq can become a democratic model for the rest of the Muslim states of …
Troops of the French 2nd Armored Division parade down the Champs-Élysées on 26 August 1944

The Liberation of Paris

… four years of Nazi occupation. Following a week of guerilla combat between Resistance fighters and the occupying German … Dietrich von Choltitz, the German military governor and commander of the city’s German garrison, formally … happen in the summer of 1944. For U.S. and British military officials at the time, Paris was simply not a high priority. …
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

… ground. They are fronts on political theaters of war: sites where vying factions negotiate history, a society’s … unpalatable, or politically divisive emperor, all official monuments carrying his likeness would be destroyed. … that of Nero’s by Vitellius. Damnatio memoriae was most common after regime change. Note however, that the names of …
American Union Bank, New York City. April 26, 1932.

The Bailout: A Far Cry from Socialism

… “Socialism!” That’s the alarm many conservative commentators and legislators are sounding about the latest … slope towards socialism or at least a day when government officials run American businesses, the American economy and, … to socialism. Unless the government’s investment in banks comes with effective government oversight, the real problem …
Mao proclaiming establishment of PRC.

The Establishment of the People’s Republic of China and Its Impacts

… governmental upheavals after 1911.  Mao Zedong and the Communist Party’s Rise to Victory During the 1920s and … themselves as “Taiwanese” only. However, Taiwan’s official status remains complex and unclear. While the PRC … In 1979, seven years after President Richard Nixon visited China, China officially established diplomatic …