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Human Rights at a Crossroads

… 2018, President Donald Trump delivered a speech before the United Nations General Assembly. Humanitarian concerns … are treated by their own governments and what can be done when governments violate individual rights. The logo for the … to the approach of President Ronald Reagan (1981-89), who was also deeply suspicious of the notion that the United …
People celebrating anniversary of the revolution in Mashhad in 2014.

Iran: Still Struggling toward Self-Determination

… For the Bush administration, its conflict with Iran began with … program. For Iranians, the conflict started in 1901 when the British took advantage of a weak government to … people are unable to manage their own affairs. There was a time when the United States was not the “Great Satan.” …

Population Bomb? The Debate over Indian Population

… In the weeks and months prior to the current financial crisis, much of the world media was reporting on a global crisis in food. A seemingly … were left uninhabited." In the early nineteenth century, when the British East India Company controlled an increasing …

Child Kidnapping in America

… Across the United States this autumn, Americans watched intently … for parents, and structures of policing and law. When parents today express horror (and fascination) about … in 1874. When Charles Brewster Ross (known as Charley) was kidnapped on July 1, 1874, he was certainly not the
View of Tbilisi as seen from Narikala, the city's medieval citadel.

A Postcard from Georgia and Azerbaijan

The Caucasus Mountains are one of history’s great transition … in Georgia and Azerbaijan visited. Georgia My first stop was Georgia, a small country (population roughly three … the third century B.C.E. through the fifth century C.E., when the capital moved to Tbilisi. Mtskheta was founded at …
Hitler with politicians

The Nazis Take Poland and the Start of World War II

The shooting started in the early morning, 4:45 AM, September 1, 1939, when the obsolete German battleship Schleswig-Holstein … where the SS men gunned them down. The assault on Danzig was the opening act of the full-scale invasion of Poland as … The Nazis Take Poland and the Start of World War II …

Making Sense of the 'Hermit Kingdom': North Korea in the Nuclear Age

… While Americans have been focused on the economic crisis and the Presidential elections, events … Russia, Japan, and the U.S.). Amidst intense debate in Washington, and despite significant opposition, the Bush … has been the North's propensity for creating trouble just when it seems to be at its weakest, sometimes even taking …
Mary Mallon in a hospital bed in 1907.

Who Was Typhoid Mary?

… Mary Mallon crouched breathlessly in a storage closet near the Park Avenue mansion where she worked as a cook.  Hours … a noted sanitary engineer, to investigate. Initially, Soper was stumped: there was no indication that the home’s water … if people did not wash thoroughly after using the bathroom. When sewage seeped into drinking or bathing water, or when a …
Motorcycle and sidecar with an advertisement for the Popolo d'Italia newspaper.

A Media King Becomes Prime Minister (Again)

… electoral coalition swept Italy’s general elections. The Italian media mogul, Italy’s richest man, is now the … But Silvio Berlusconi is no ordinary politician. In 1994, when he first served, briefly, as Italian premier, he was simply a fabulously wealthy businessman with a talent …

Singapore at Fifty

… as an independent country. From a meagre population of 150 when the British East India Company first set up a factory and … goes back to the late 13 th century, when a port and polity was established at the mouth of the Singapore River. Over … East Asia & Southeast Asia …
Map showing position of North Korea relative to China

What Are They Thinking in Beijing?

… It’s a question worth asking because the Chinese government has already defied conventional … behavior to the change in leadership that occurred when Hu Jintao replaced Jiang Zemin last November as the … Cultural Revolution decade (1966-1976), when the CCP was less dependable, since it was prone to let ideological …
Border Fence/Wall

Shifting Borders: The Many Sides of U.S.-Mexican Relations

… Long before the recent initiatives to strengthen the border wall with Mexico and contentious debates … the most famous platforms of the 2016 presidential campaign was then-candidate Donald Trump's promise that he would … today between the U.S. and Mexico seems pretty high. When did this animosity between the U.S. and Mexico begin …
Painting of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Memories of the Great War

The summer of 2014 marked the 100 th anniversary of the beginning of World War I. In this month’s podcast, three … far and wide to bring us first-hand stories of how the Great War is being commemorated across the globe. Brenna … and just sort of be present in the place at the moment when the sort of historic event occurred.   Patrick Potyondy …
Glacial melt from Myrdalsjökull glacier in the south (jökull means glacier in Icelandic). Note the alluvial cones formed by volcanic ash and sediment.

A Postcard from Reykjavik: Iceland’s Volcanic History

… Humans weren’t around when volcanoes formed Iceland’s unique island landscapes some 20 million years ago. But in the 1,100 years that Iceland has seen settlement, the story … seen from the Ring Road; Iceland's Ring Road, Highway 1, was completed in 1974 and circles the island in an 828 mile …
Book cover of To Break Russia's Chains by Vladimir Alexandrov

Terrorism as the Path to a Better Russia

Review of To Break Russia’s Chains: Boris Savinkov and His Wars Against the Tsar and the Bolsheviks by Vladimir Alexandrov (New York: Pegasus Books, 2021)
… A revolutionary terrorist in late imperial Russia, Savinkov was responsible for several spectacular assassinations, … the Governor General of Moscow, Grand Duke Sergei. When not organizing plots, Savinkov published fiction under … direct political violence, hatching plans to assassinate Lenin and Trotsky and then sought to kill Boris Chicherin, …
Andrés Manuel López Obrador in front of Mexican flag

"Juntos Haremos Historia": AMLO and Mexico's Fourth Transformation

… Andrés Manuel López Obrador (a.k.a.AMLO) rode to the presidency in 2018 by promising Mexico "juntos haremos historia" ("together we will make history"). Pundits have fallen over themselves trying to categorize AMLO, refering to him … about what Mexico City looks like now versus what it did when he took over? What sort of policies had AMLO …
A foreclosure sign in front of a home

Avoiding Market Meltdowns

… presidential candidates demanded stronger standards for the mortgage industry. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and … in the past, no one heeded it. Now it's time for leaders in Washington to stop the abuses. The Democratic candidates' … of reformers in earlier periods of American history. When hazardous practices created troubles in the past, …
European Union flag

The EU: Past, Present, and Future

… Donald Hempson ,  Lauren Henry , and Chris Otter to discuss the history of the European Union, an organization that has united … in ways that were almost unthinkable a century ago. Today, the EU faces an unprecedented combination of challenges, … little bit of the historical origins of the European Union. When and why was it created? And maybe Don, if you wanted to …
Taiwanese flags on display for National Day, 2018.

The Taiwan Strait Conflict

… Mounting tensions in the Taiwan Strait pose perhaps the greatest security … ( Kuomintang , KMT) led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.  When U.S. mediation failed, the Americans threw their … Strait to prevent an escalation of war in the region.  Washington refused to recognize the PRC diplomatically and …
Barry Faulkner's mural, "The Constitution," depicts the framers of the U.S. Constitution.

Term Limits: Thank Goodness We Didn’t Have Them in 1787

… Once again Congress has debated and, at least for the moment, defeated a proposed constitutional amendment on … of the nineteenth century. Thomas Jefferson, for example, was first elected to public office in 1769, when the 26-year-old lawyer won a seat in Virginia’s …