History professors often look for ways to use the past to inform present debates. With long-past events, that sometimes requires some acrobatic leaps over centuries or millennia, but in my own courses on violence in American history, the connections are often pretty obvious. Every day, a stream of new or ongoing violent events invite historical […]
The War in Afghanistan is Nineteen Years Old: What Can it Teach us about Violence in American History?
From the Editors: This article is accompanied by a comment from Jeremi Suri, the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. Such comments are a new feature for Not Even Past designed to provide different ways to engage with important new work. This week marks the […]
This is Democracy – Young JFK: Lessons for Democracy Today
Guest: Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and Professor of History, Harvard University This episode discusses how President JFK’s legacy influences our politics today. Zachary sets the scene with his poem, “The Ghost of JFK”. Fredrik Logevall is the Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs […]
Who Killed Berta Cáceres? Dams, Death Squads, and an Indigenous Defender’s Battle for the Planet by Nina Lakhani (2020)
On Monday, July 5, 2021, the high court in Tegucigalpa, Honduras convicted Roberto David Castillo, former head of the Desarrollos Energéticos dam company, for the murder of Berta Cáceres. The court ruled that Castillo coordinated, planned, and financed the assassination of Cáceres. Speaking in Honduras’ Río Blanco in 2013, Berta Cáceres rallied a sea of […]
Gender & Sexuality: Collected Works from Not Even Past
By Alina Scott The study of gender continues to evolve and push the discipline of history forward. Over the years, Not Even Past has published a wide range of pieces on the topic. The articles, podcasts, book reviews, and teaching materials span the globe. This collection features articles and books about gender, the way it […]
A Small Country Lost in the Files: Albania’s Absence in an American Archive
by Jonathan Parker Research projects don’t always go as planned. When venturing into the archives, historians are confronted with mountains of documents – boxes upon boxes of government memos, letters, records, etc. Knowing what you want to find can help, but the task of finding is still the proverbial needle in a haystack. This is […]
Free Healthcare with a Price
By Lera Toropin In flipping through old issues of Soviet Life, one finds a wide array of articles that present only the best that life in the USSR could offer: fashion, recipes, sports success stories, film reviews, detailed descriptions of beautiful travel destinations in Kislovodsk, Zheleznovodsk, and Naryan-Mar, all paired with colorful, enticing photographs. An […]
Yugoslavia in the Third World: Not a New Bloc but Unity of Action in the Interest of Peace
by Samantha Farmer In July 1956, Gamel Nasser of Egypt (then the United Arab Republic), Jawaharlal Nehru of India, and Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia met in the Croatian coastal city of Pula to reaffirm the Bandung Principles, a platform for decolonization established the previous year in Indonesia. [1] In doing so, Tito formally threw […]
Presenting Prague Spring to the West: Czechoslovak Life and Socialism with a Human Face
by Cullan Bendig In January 1968, Alexander Dubček became the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, replacing the unpopular communist hardliner Antonín Novotný. The following months of 1968, known as the Prague Spring, brought Czechoslovakia to the attention of the international community. Dubček’s goal was to create “socialism with a human face” through […]
Remembering the Tex-Son Strike: Legacies of Latina-led Labor Activism in San Antonio, Texas
By Micaela Valadez The year 2019 marks the 60th anniversary of the Tex-Son strike, a major labor battle waged in San Antonio, Texas from 1959 to 1963 by mostly Mexican, Mexican-American, and some Anglo women all of whom were active members of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) Local 180. This strike is important […]