History

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Ta-Nehisi Coates made the argument for US reparations for slavery in 2014 in The Atlantic. In that essay, he made an analogy with German reparations to Israel. In his new book, The Message, Coates expresses regret for the unexamined Zionist biases in that analogy, which obscured the dispossession of the […]

Featured

Nobel Prize-Winning Japanese survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki see themselves in the Palestinians of Gaza

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The decision of the Truman administration to use nuclear weapons on the civilian cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 is one of the great stains on the United States. There are other blots on our escutcheon, including the perfidious treatment of Native Americans and the enslavement of millions of […]

Colonialism

The New Climate Colonialism

Joshua Frank

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Considered Angola’s crown jewel by many, Lobito is a colorful port city on the country’s scenic Atlantic coast where a nearly five-kilometer strip of land creates a natural harbor. Its white sand beaches, vibrant blue waters, and mild tropical climate have made Lobito a tourist destination in recent years. Yet under […]

History

Israel’s Destruction of Gaza Heritage Sites aims to erase — and replace — Palestine’s History

The Conversation

By Pilar Montero Vilar, Universidad Complutense de Madrid | – (The Conversation) – In 2016, British photographer James Morris published Time and Remains of Palestine. The images in this book bear witness to an absence of architectural monuments, and to the invisible moments of history buried in the rubble and wastelands of Palestine. Situated at […]

Featured

Frederick Douglass: The Moral Physician for all Seasons

Sydney Morrison

Los Angeles (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Racism, like cancer, seems incurable as it continues to ravage our nation; its social, cultural and political life imperiled by a relentless disease affecting millions, many of whom deny its very existence. Even so, we must continue to celebrate the undaunted courage and determination of our moral […]

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Eugene Rogan’s The Damascus Events: The 1860 Massacre and the Making of the Modern Middle East

Marc Martorell Junyent

Review of Eugene Rogan, “The Damascus Events: The 1860 Massacre and the Making of the Modern Middle East” (New York: Basic Books, 2024). Munich, Germany (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) –– How did Ottoman Damascus descend into violence and looting in July 1860? Why did the Damascene masses fall upon the Christians, leaving around 5,000 […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Change has deep historical Roots – Amitav Ghosh explores how Capitalism and Colonialism fit in

The Conversation

By Julia Taylor, University of the Witwatersrand and Imraan Valodia, University of the Witwatersrand | – (The Conversation) – Amitav Ghosh is an internationally celebrated author of 20 historical fiction and non-fiction books. The Indian thinker and writer has written extensively on the legacies of colonialism, violence and extractivism. His most famous works explore migration, […]

History

Gaza is in Rubble now; But it was a great Intellectual Hub of the Roman Empire

The Conversation

By Christopher Mallan, The University of Western Australia | – (The Conversation) – The years 2023 and 2024 will certainly be remembered as some of the darkest in the long and often violent history of Gaza. The recent destruction of schools and universities in the Gaza strip has attracted the attention of the media and […]

Africa

German Colonialism in Africa left Hundreds of Thousands Dead: Its Chilling Afterlife

The Conversation

By Henning Melber, University of Pretoria | – (The Conversation) – Germany was a significant – and often brutal – colonial power in Africa. But this colonial history is not told as often as that of other imperialist nations. A new book called The Long Shadow of German Colonialism: Amnesia, Denialism and Revisionism aims to […]