Interview Mustafa Aksakal on The War That Made the Middle East January 22, 2026 A sweeping narrative of war, great power politics, and ordinary people caught up in the devastation, Mustafa Aksakal's The War That Made the Middle East offers new insights about the Great War and its profound and lasting consequences. Read More
Essay Why know-it-alls get under our skin, and what their history can teach us November 21, 2025 You probably know the kind of person who can ruin a dinner party before anyone has picked up a fork or knife. They casually correct your pronunciation of 鈥渁p茅ritif,鈥� keenly explain the difference between prosecco and cava, and, by dessert, are lecturing on the limitations of spelling checkers. Read More
Essay Finding Sophie November 18, 2025 Somehow, the message didn鈥檛 sink in. I鈥檇 often heard the old adage: 鈥渁 picture is worth a thousand words.鈥� But the photograph by Alexander Gardner didn鈥檛 explain itself to me. Instead, it took me about 130,000 words to try and explain it. I wrote an entire book about one photograph. Read More
Podcast The First King of England November 17, 2025 From one of today鈥檚 leading historians of the early medieval period, The First King of England is an enthralling chronicle of 脝thelstan, England鈥檚 founder king whose achievements of 927 rival the Norman Conquest of 1066 in shaping Britain as we know it. Read More
Podcast India: 5,000 Years of History on the Subcontinent October 06, 2025 Much of world history is Indian history. Home today to one in four people, the subcontinent has long been densely populated and deeply connected to Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas through migration and trade. Read More
Essay Why killing vampires makes people happy September 25, 2025 John Blair is the author of Killing the Dead, a riveting history of vampire panics across cultures and down through the millennia鈥攁nd why killing the dead is better than killing the living. Read More
Podcast A History of the Muslim World September 09, 2025 Michael A. Cook talks with Morteza Hajizadeh about his new book, A History of the Muslim World鈥攁 panoramic history of the Muslim world from the age of the Prophet Muhammad to the birth of the modern era. Read More
Podcast The World at First Light September 04, 2025 The cultural epoch we know as the Renaissance emerged at a certain time and in a certain place. Why then and not earlier? Why there and not elsewhere? Read More
Interview David Woodman on The First King of England September 03, 2025 David Woodman blends masterful storytelling with the latest scholarship to paint a multifaceted portrait of 脝thelstan (d. 939)鈥攁n immensely important but neglected figure. Read More
Podcast Iran鈥檚 Grand Strategy September 03, 2025 Vali Nasr examines Iran鈥檚 political history in new ways to explain its actions and ambitions on the world stage, showing how, behind the veneer of theocracy and Islamic ideology, today鈥檚 Iran is pursuing a grand strategy aimed at securing the country internally and asserting its place in the region and the world. Read More
Podcast When the Bombs Stopped July 16, 2025 In When the Bombs Stopped, Erin Lin investigates the consequences of the US bombing campaign across postconflict Cambodia. Read More
Essay Bernd Roeck on The World at First Light July 15, 2025 The cultural epoch we know as the Renaissance emerged at a certain time and in a certain place. Why then and not earlier? Why there and not elsewhere? Historian Bernd Roeck explores the cultural and historical preconditions that enabled the European Renaissance. Read More
Essay The bombs that didn鈥檛 go off July 07, 2025 Despite their years of experience and hard work, Lom and Leang are failing at small-scale commercial production. Why are these smart and hard-working farmers in one of the most fertile areas in the country tallying so many losses, unable to clear their share of agricultural profits? Read More
Essay Meritocracy and diversity: The Rooseveltian perspective June 11, 2025 Questions of meritocracy and diversity have been freshly thrust to the center of our national discourse thanks to a pitched battle between two presidents鈥攐ne of the United States, the other of Harvard University. Read More
Podcast The Girl in the Middle June 03, 2025 Spinning a spellbinding historical tale from a single enigmatic image, The Girl in the Middle reveals how the American nation grappled with what kind of country it would be as it expanded westward in the aftermath of the Civil War. Read More
