Tag: history

Since 1634 the Boston Commons has been shared by all.

From walking libraries and a god named “Word” to what Sherlock Holmes never said.

Public water systems, public education, public libraries, and public roads are modern innovations.

The Booker Prize nominated novelist talks about his obsession with Pynchon, history as interference, & why literary fiction needn’t forsake the pleasures of suspense.

In the early 20th century, progressives saw urban land as common property.

Two figures challenge simple ways of thinking about slavery and agency.

The journalist and “accidental theologist” discusses distinguishing human from legend in her latest book on the founder of Islam.

Pankaj Mishra’s new book, From the Ruins of Empire: The intellectuals who remade Asia, has one eye on the history of the East and one eye on its future.

Russia doesn’t get extinguished. No, Russia is the one that extinguishes. Russia is the prophecy. It had certainly ended my world, several times over.

An outsider works to restore an abandoned chateau in historic Burgundy.

Amidst an election that has us feeling like a divided nation, the challenge is to rediscover the public good.

How the deficit obsession has been distracting us from our country’s most pressing issues.

How Berlin’s past shapes its present and future as an artist base.

Unwrapping the history of Mexico’s real national snack uncovers classism, dynamite, and shifting definitions of culture.

Even supporters of North Carolina’s gay-marriage ban know it won’t last 20 years. Ed Winstead reflects on the South, the past, and when legislation plans its own obsolescence.

Ah, to be at the center of the world! How Gerard Mercator changed history by creating the first useful map.