The past is never dead. It's not even past
This article is part of the series: History Beyond Academia Este artículo tiene una versión en español. History is, above all, an effort to understand the past. Those of us who study it seek to reconstruct and interpret what happened, using methods that allow us to do so with care and rigor. We work with […]
Fredric Jameson has a new book—his last. Published posthumously in 2024, only a few months after his passing, it offers an idiosyncratic philosophical journey through his own deeply personal engagement with French theory. Just as he has done since 1985 as a Professor at Duke University, in this work Jameson takes the time to reflect […]
“Anglos and Mexicans; Still Making Texas” 40 Anniversary Symposium will take place on February 20-21, 2026 at the University of Texas at Austin. More details at the end of the article. When I first read Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836-1986, it felt like I was reading about the entire world. My entire world. By that […]
The “Longhorns v. Aggies” Exhibit is currently on display at the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports at the University of Texas at Austin I have lived in Texas my entire life. Because of this, the football game between the University of Texas and Texas A&M University has always played an integral […]
This and other articles in Primary Source: History from the Ransom Center Stacks represent an ongoing partnership between Not Even Past and the Harry Ransom Center, a world-renowned humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin. Visit the Center’s website to learn more about its collections and get involved. “Only in extinction is the collector comprehended,” wrote Walter […]
Not Even Past and AVAnnotate will soon be partnering to develop new collaborative initiatives that connect readers with NEP content. More to come. The first historical recordings that piqued my interest were made by my fellow Floridian Zora Neale Hurston in a studio in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1939. Recorded on June 18 at the Federal Music […]
In Puerto Rican Chicago: Schooling the City 1940-1977, Mirelsie Velázquez provides an eye-opening account of Puerto Ricans’ relationship to colonialism and education as they migrated to the city of Chicago in the mid-twentieth century. The book presents a thorough examination of how these migrants built and fought for a community through the lens of K-12 and postsecondary […]
This article coincides with an upcoming public talk at UT on Pauliceia 2.0, January 28 at 4:00 p.m. For more details, please visit the event page. While passing through Austin on vacation in 2015, Brazilian historian Luis Ferla went for a walk across the UT campus. He was mulling over new projects for the research lab […]
What does a Catholic Cardinal sequestered in the US embassy in Budapest and the dead body of an American found in Prague’s Vltava River in the 1960s have in common? Characters in a true crime podcast? No, at least not yet. Instead, these are examples of lives (and lives lost) whose stories are buried in […]
This article is part of the series: History beyond Academia The term “public history” entered my vocabulary only after I moved to the United States, where it designates a well-defined professional field. In Latin America, by contrast, similar practices have long existed without requiring a defined institutional/formal designation. Communities have always engaged in the making and sharing […]