MacArthur Fellow, Peabody Award winner, iconic public radio host and creator of one of the most successful shows, Radiolab Jad Abumrad joins a studio au…
"[Historical knowledge] gives understanding of how the present world came to be, and maybe more importantly, an appreciation that everything that is, never necessarily had to be" -from "History as Freedom" —Joe Costello, longtime political organizer, writer On the 10th anniversary of the groundbreaking SOPA Blackout, a question seems to surface above all else: can…
The Long, Slow Path to Progress
I stopped writing for nearly two years. I had intended to return to my Life and Whim blog long ago, but various circumstances too mundane and uninteresting to recount got in the way. At least that’s how I rationalize things in my mind. Certainly, the COVID-19 crisis didn’t help, but my departure long predates the pandemic. In fact, there is no good reason why I stopped doing this thing that once brought me great joy. One important lesson I’ve learned from the experience is that the hardest part about stopping something you love is learning to start over.
Dissent and Our Search for Be-gam Pura , the City Without Sorrows
Romila Thapar s Voices of Dissent bring out how the idea of dissent has always been embedded in Indian society.
Farmers protest against the new farm laws at Singhu border near Delhi, India, December 4, 2020. Photo: Reuters/Anushree Fadnavis
In his seminal work
The Historianâs Craft, French historian Marc Bloch wrote that the very names we use to describe ancient ideas or vanished forms of social organisation would be quite meaningless if we had not known living men. Knowing well the living men of present-day India shouldnât make us think twice about why historian Romila Thapar penned her current book,