Not Even Past will publish letters to the editor with educational or scholarly merit. When the letter concerns a post on Not Even Past, the author of the article will be invited to respond. We encourage letter writers to refrain from ad hominem discourse. Joan Neuberger, Editor. Remarks on Jesse Ritner’s “Paying for Peace: Reflections on the ‘Lasting Peace’ […]
Empire
Underground Santiago: Sweet Waters Grown Salty
By Nathan Stone Preso en su lecho mi rio pasa, pero se acerca su libertad. Sus aguas dulces ya son saladas; ya no eres rio, eres el mar. A prisoner within its banks, my river rolls on, soon to find freedom. Your sweet waters now have grown salty; you’re no river, now, you are […]
Monumental Reinterpretation
by Karen Kincaid Brady On the west side of the Denver Capital building stands a soldier atop a stone monument. The soldier is easily recognizable as a Civil War soldier with his rifle ready, sword at his side, his distinctive hat, and the gaze of a vigilant soldier, saddened to be fighting his brother and countrymen. […]
Civil War and Daily Life: Snapshots of the Early War in Guatemala
by Vasken Markarian (All photos here are published with the permission of the photographer.) Two young Guatemalan soldiers abruptly pose for the camera. They rush to stand upright with rifles at their sides. On a dirt road overlooking an ominous Guatemala City, they stand on guard duty. This snapshot formed the title page of an exhibit […]
Did the British Empire depend on separating Parents and Children?
By Sumit Guha Empires ancient and modern are large, hierarchical organizations, structurally founded on deep inequalities of risk and reward. The British Empire in Asia was no exception. At the front lines of imperial power were, all too often, common men (and some women) who were tricked, cozened, misled, coerced, and whipped into serving as […]
You’re Teaching WHAT?
Cross-posted from Chris Rose’s blog, where he regularly tells us Important and Useful Things and makes us laugh along the way. In addition to his many other accomplishments, Chris is the brains and motor behind our podcast 15 Minute History. by Christopher Rose Ladies and Gentleman, I give you … Terrorism and Extremist Movements. Ta-Da!The reaction […]
“Doing” History in the Modern U.S. Survey: Teaching with and Analyzing Academic Articles
Originally posted on Process History on September 5, 2017. by Christopher Babits Near the end of the spring semester, my department asked me to teach a summer session of U.S. History since 1865. I had a short time to think about what I’d teach and how I’d teach it. For me, it was important for […]
A Deportation Story: Russia 1914
On the same day the President of the United States announced that he was ending DACA (the program that provides some immigrants who were brought to the US as minors protection from deportation and eligibility for a work permit), this moving essay appeared on the Russian History Blog, which we re-post with their permission. In the context of our […]
Antonio de Ulloa’s Relación Histórica del Viage a la America Meridional
By Haley Schroer Nineteen-year-old Antonio de Ulloa set sail for the Americas in the spring of 1735. Ulloa was traveling as one of two assistants to a contingency of French scientists appointed to South America. The observations Ulloa and his counterpart, Jorge Juan, made on the excursion culminated in Relación Histórica del Viage a la […]
Digital Teaching: A Mid-Semester Timeline
By Chris Babits Last March, students in Dr. Erika Bsumek’s Introduction to American Indian History took their midterm exam. Most students earned good grades, but on a mid-semester assessment, a large number expressed interest in some form of extra credit. Students also indicated that since the material was very new to them (secondary curricula rarely emphasizes […]