The past is never dead. It's not even past
By José A. Adrián An Independence Within an Empire When the thirteen British colonies declared their independence in 1776, the world witnessed not only the birth of a new nation but also a decisive shift in the balance of global power. As historians such as Jeremy Adelman, J. H. Elliott, and Anthony Pagden have noted, […]
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. To my fellow researchers: if you are lucky enough […]
Projit Bihari Mukharji’s Brown Skins, White Coats: Race Science in India, 1920-66 adds an innovative account of India’s twentieth century to the historiography of race science. As the head of the Department of History at Ashoka University in Haryana, India, Mukharji engages with subaltern studies and decolonial writings of South Asian history. The title echoes psychiatrist and […]
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 […]
Lit by fiery amber torchlight, rows of samurai stand shoulder to shoulder as their lord, Yoshii Toranaga, strides toward his stage. The English-born foreigner John Blackthorne, blue-eyed and bewildered, listens through a translator as Toranaga announces that, in return for saving his life, Blackthorne will be granted land, servants, kimonos, and two swords. He is […]
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 […]
When people outside of Mexico think of Día de Muertos, they often imagine something very specific: altars with multiple levels, covered in bright orange cempasúchil flowers, decorated sugar skulls, candles, and photos of the departed. It’s a beautiful image—one made globally familiar by films like Disney–Pixar’s Coco and even the opening sequence of the James Bond movie Spectre. These images have […]
In Surgery and Salvation, O’Brien traces the history of reproductive injustice in Mexico, taking a longue durée approach extending from the late colonial period through post-revolutionary state formation. She focuses on reproductive surgeries and how women’s bodies—particularly those of poor and Indigenous women—became laboratories for medical experimentation, religious morality, and eugenic population control. Much historical scholarship on reproductive control […]
In this page, we bring together the full collection of NEP’s Archive Chronicles! Curated by Associate Editor Camila Ordorica, this series explores archives as affective and historical spaces in their own right, while offering insights into the process of conducting archival work. Each installment provides a unique perspective on the treasures and challenges researchers encounter […]