Essay StepUP: University Press Week 2024 November 11, 2024 As I write with anticipation for this year鈥檚 University Press Week, and the support and superpowers of this community it celebrates, we鈥檝e just closed our seventh grant cycle for Supporting Diverse Voices book proposal grants. Read More
Essay The politics of piety November 07, 2024 Christianity is often viewed as an alternative to Roman religion. But in many ways, Christianity was an expression of Roman religion. Read More
Interview Eric Storm on the rise and evolution of nationalism October 28, 2024 Is nationalism more alive than ever? Eric Storm, author of 鈥淣ationalism,鈥� discusses the nature and evolution of nationalism, from the early modern era to the present. Read More
Essay Monuments on fire October 23, 2024 In October 2023, one monument met its end for the sake of another. A bronze equestrian statue of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee that had stood in Charlottesville, Virginia since 1924 was sent to the furnace to be melted down, piece by piece, and formed into uniform rectangular ingots. The developing afterlife of the Lee statue is part of another history鈥攐ne that transcends the American context and dates back centuries earlier. Read More
Essay Eugenic fantasies October 17, 2024 The topic of intellectual disability seems frequently to function as a conversation stopper, and establishing the full humanity of individuals with complex developmental impairments has been an ongoing struggle in every nation in the world, including the U.S. Read More
Essay Einstein Papers Project鈥檚 newest volume: Einstein wrestles with politics and physics, 1929鈥�1930 October 16, 2024 Since 1987 the Einstein Papers Project, based at Caltech, has been releasing a volume of Einstein's correspondence and papers approximately every three years. Volume 17 finds Einstein living mainly in Berlin, though traveling throughout Europe to attend conferences and receive honorary degrees. Read More
Essay Einstein Papers Project鈥檚 editors鈥� reflections on The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Volume 17 October 16, 2024 Josh Eisenthal, EPP Editor, reflects on Einstein's second meeting with Rabindranath Tagore. Read More
Essay Deep time and the Civil War dead October 15, 2024 In rocky tombs, formed millions of years before Gettysburg, rested the fossilized remains of a riotous wonder of life that had cavorted and gnashed its way through the continent鈥檚 primordial seas and landscapes. This lost world had been unearthed piecemeal in the decades between the Revolution and the Civil War. Read More
Interview Paul Reitter and Paul North on Karl Marx鈥檚 Capital October 08, 2024 Paul Reitter and Paul North discuss the creation, reception, and future of 鈥淐apital.鈥� Read More
Essay Up from feudalism: the Black American liberal tradition October 03, 2024 What did it mean to be an enlightened 鈥渓iberal鈥� in the United States before the twentieth century? What鈥檚 race got to do with it? Read More
Essay Narrative images, sacred places September 30, 2024 Close inspection of a "kalamkari" shows the work is exemplary of early modern temple paintings, which in form and subject mirror the concentric enclosing walls of the Hindu temple. Read More
Essay Ungoverning: an unfamiliar name for an unfamiliar danger September 30, 2024 The idea that those entrusted with responsibility for governing a democracy would intentionally make the state less capable鈥攄egrading its ability to collect taxes, to deliver mail, to conduct diplomacy, to prosecute violations of civil rights鈥攊s almost unthinkable. We call this 鈥渦ngoverning.鈥� Read More
Essay Numbing memories September 23, 2024 For over a quarter century, many millions in the US have captured moments of their daily lives and shared them online, from the mildly amusing and banal to the shocking and painful. Read More
Essay The right way to drink yerba mate September 18, 2024 The first time someone from North America tries yerba mate in the traditional style, with a gourd or cattle horn stuffed with smokey green leaves and the metal drinking straw, we often break one of the unwritten rules of the South American drink. Read More
Essay Readers, receipts, and the history of empire September 16, 2024 As long as there have been documents, there have been functional archives. In the nineteenth century, a period of immense imperial expansion, the formation of the functional archive was tightly tied to the ideological project of empire building. Read More
