History
Unfolding Paper’s Past: Evidence From Egypt – With Lydia Wilson
While the world was fixated on the Pyramids of Giza, excavations at the forgotten desert harbor of Wadi el-Jarf quietly unlocked a new historical discovery.
The Forgotten East
Western writers have hesitated for centuries — over a millennium even — to call Byzantium what it was: the Roman Empire. The historian Anthony Kaldellis has dubbed this tendency “Roman denialism,” an intellectual condition he has mercilessly criticized for years. Now he has brought this battle to a popular audience.
South Africa’s Stance on Palestine Opens Questions About Apartheid and History
South Africa’s emergence as a leading voice against Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories has placed the stridently pro-Israel Jewish community in the country in a bind, as it also struggles to grapple with its own complex relationship to the old apartheid system.
Britain’s Imperial Past Has Become a Battleground in the Culture Wars
For the last decade, the question of who gets to interrogate historical questions, and why they are motivated to do so, has become very fraught in Britain. The topics that have become most central to this controversy are the British Empire, British imperialism, and ideas about race, identity and belonging in the British nation.
A Notorious Photograph From a US Massacre in the Philippines Reveals an Ugly Truth
The power of photography to depict the reality of war first emerged over a century ago. Yet despite showing with greater clarity than ever events like the slaughter at Bud Dajo by the U.S. military, it has not given us a universal language of empathy that could galvanize resistance to future crimes.
The Untold Story of the Vagabond Princess Gulbadan — With Ruby Lal
Ruby Lal joins New Lines’ Rasha Elass on this week’s episode of The Lede, to discuss the fascinating life of Mughal Princess Gulbadan, who left the walled harem of her nephew Emperor Akbar in Agra to undertake a dangerous extended pilgrimage to Mecca.
Past the Medieval Horizon — with Ian Mortimer
“If you only count enacted violence, we've got more peaceful, but that supposes the potential violence will never be unleashed." Medieval historian Ian Mortimer joins New Lines magazine’s Lydia Wilson on The Lede to talk about what the Middle Ages tell us about life today.