Essays
Taming the Tiger
In India, while tigers symbolized courage for Rajput kingdoms, Mughal emperors like Akbar and Jahangir saw a slain tiger as proof of dominance over nature. The British emulated Mughal tiger hunts to assert imperial control — a symbolism now reversed by the country’s conservationists.
Christmas in Bethlehem
Festivities have returned to the place of Jesus’ birth after a two-year pause, but the shadow of Gaza, occupation and genocide was never far from the muted celebrations.
Couscous in Marsala: The Long History of Sicilians and Tunisians
Long before today’s migration debates, tens of thousands of Sicilians built new lives in Tunisia, shaping a shared Mediterranean culture now largely forgotten.
‘The Course of Empire’ Reimagined in Middle Eastern Graffiti
Through graffiti, political expression has slipped out of gilded frames and onto concrete and stone. Modern murals in Cairo, Bethlehem and Amman show how the measure of a civilization lies not in its monuments, but in people insisting on being seen, claiming space and painting themselves back into the landscape.
What Is Peronism?
Since its emergence in 1945, Peronism has profoundly shaped Argentina’s political landscape. Its power lies in its capacity to turn popular, everyday experience into a political vision. This distinctive trait has allowed it to take very different forms — from progressive to right-leaning — and to influence political movements across Latin America.
A Royal Veto Keeps Abortion Illegal in Monaco
Women from Monaco may cross into neighboring France to obtain an abortion, as they have for decades, but within the borders of their own city-state, the procedure will remain out of reach — prohibited not by medicine, lawmakers or public opinion, but by the monarchy’s religious architecture.
The Unruly History That Weighs on the New Syria
The challenges facing Syria today are connected to three previous beginnings: the fall of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I, independence in 1946 after World War II and the fall of European colonial empires, and the birth of Hafez al-Assad’s regime in 1970.