history

Civilisation – and Some Discontents
Public Engagement
April 30, 2024

Civilisation – and Some Discontents

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Fifty Years of Hip Hop: Celebrating a Cultural Phenomenon
News
August 28, 2023

Fifty Years of Hip Hop: Celebrating a Cultural Phenomenon

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Obaro Ikime, 1936-2023: Scholar of Nigerian and African Identity
Insights
May 18, 2023

Obaro Ikime, 1936-2023: Scholar of Nigerian and African Identity

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Bill Freund, 1944-2020: Inquisitive and Elegant Scholar on African Historiography
Science & Social Science
September 17, 2020

Bill Freund, 1944-2020: Inquisitive and Elegant Scholar on African Historiography

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Building a Digital Archive of Centuries of Records about Enslaved Peoples

Building a Digital Archive of Centuries of Records about Enslaved Peoples

Paper documents are still priceless records of the past, even in a digital world. Primary sources stored in local archives throughout Latin America, for example, describe a centuries-old multiethnic society grappling with questions of race, class and religion.

However, paper archives are vulnerable to…

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A Century Ago, Congress Dismissed a U.S. Census

A Century Ago, Congress Dismissed a U.S. Census

Census 2020 is far from the first census to set off bitter political fights. One hundred years ago, results from Census 1920 initiated a decadelong struggle about how to allocate a state’s seats in Congress. The political arguments were so bitter that Congress eventually decided they would not use Census 1920 results.

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How Archival Research Morphs in the Digital Age

How Archival Research Morphs in the Digital Age

Today, and into the future, consulting archival documents increasingly means reading them on a screen. This brings with it opportunity — imagine being able to search for keywords across millions of documents, leading to radically faster search times — but also challenge, as the number of electronic documents increases exponentially.

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The Dean of ‘Ism’ Studies: Walter Laqueur, 1921-2018

The Dean of ‘Ism’ Studies: Walter Laqueur, 1921-2018

Walter Laquer, who fled the Holocaust, experienced the birth of Israel, founded the ‘Journal of Contemporary History,’ and was an unflinching sentinel against terrorism and an authoritarian Russia, died on September 30. He was 97.

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Do We Really Want Historians as Policy Advisers?

Do We Really Want Historians as Policy Advisers?

The claim that Thucydides’ account of the past is useful is often extended to historiography in general, rather than just to his specific – and idiosyncratic – approach. And that, suggests Neville Morley, may be the real trap of Thucydides.

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Black History and the Myth of Mary Seacole

Black History and the Myth of Mary Seacole

In what he describes as the obverse of the Rhodes Must Fall campaign, Robert Dingwall argues that the secular sainthood conferred on Mary Seacole steps on historical scholarship and ignores more genuine exemplars.

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The Quest for Impact: The Case of Academic History

The Quest for Impact: The Case of Academic History

One of the benefits of ostensibly narrow academic pursuits is how their resulting scholarship can inform the work of more widely lauded popularizers and public intellectuals.

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Katznelson’s New Deal History Wins Bancroft Prize

Katznelson’s New Deal History Wins Bancroft Prize

Ira Katznelson’s examination of the racial politics surrounding the passage of much of the Depression era New Deal, has received a Bancroft […]

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