History

Timbuktu Manuscripts Online promise to re-balance the African Continent’s place in World intellectual History

By Charles C. Stewart, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | – The ancient Timbuktu manuscripts of Mali were back in the headlines following internet giant Google’s initiative to host a collection of them at an online gallery. The images of the documents, text in Arabic, can be found at a page called Mali Magic. No […]

History

The Dangers of Assaulting Fortress Kyiv: The Peril Putin’s Troops Now Face was Shown by the Battles of Stalingrad, Grozny, and Mosul

Brian Glyn Williams

Brian Glyn Williams (University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth) and Aaron Rawley. Aaron Rawley is Volunteer Personnel Coordinator at the Gore Place Historical Museum, Waltham Mass. Dartmouth, MA (Special to Informed Comment) – At first glance Russia’s widely lambasted thrust from Belorussia down to the Ukrainian capital appears to have stalled due to logistic issues that have […]

Archaeology

Israeli Archeologists find Proof of Muslim-Christian Ecumenism among Crew of Shipwreck from Dawn of Islam

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Ariel David writing at Haaretz reports on Haifa University marine archeologists who have been investigating a shipwreck that sank off the coast of early Muslim-ruled Palestine sometime between 648 and 740 A.D. The find provides some evidence for the economic robustness of this era, and for strong connections between the […]

Archaeology

How Israel’s Indiscriminate bombing of Gaza Endangers its Precious Hellenistic and Roman Archeological Heritage

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Palestinian Gaza Strip doesn’t stay on the world’s mind the way some besieged cities in Ukraine do right now, but it is also surrounded, besieged, and blockaded by Israeli forces. This blockade is illegal in international law, since Israel is recognized as the Occupying authority over Gaza, which it […]

Cold War

Washington Should Think Twice Before Launching a New Cold War: A History Lesson for Our Desperate Moment

Tomdispatch

By >William D. Hartung, Nick Cleveland-Stout, and Taylor Giorno | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – A growing chorus of pundits and policymakers has suggested that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine marks the beginning of a new Cold War. If so, that means trillions of additional dollars for the Pentagon in the years to come coupled with a […]

History

Kyiv has faced adversity before – and a stronger Ukrainian identity grew in response

The Conversation

By Matthew Pauly, Michigan State University | – This is not the first time residents of Kyiv have fought to defend the city from an encroaching, larger army. On Jan. 30, 1918, a force made up primarily of military cadets and hastily armed students took up positions at Kruty, a railway stop northeast of Kyiv, […]

Far Right

No Pasaran: Ukraine 2022 – Why We must Stand against Putin’s Fascism

John Feffer

Vladimir Putin is the Franco of today, and Ukraine must become the graveyard of Putinism. By John Feffer | – The last surviving member of the International Brigades that fought the fascists in Spain in the 1930s died last year at the age of 101. Josep Almudéver Mateu, born in France, remembered going into battle […]

Antisemitism

Why Putin’s claim to rid Ukraine of Nazis is especially Absurd given its History

The Conversation

By Jeffrey Veidlinger | – Russian President Vladimir Putin justifies his war on Ukraine as a peacekeeping mission, a “denazification” of the country. In his address to the Russian people on Feb. 24, 2022, Putin said the purpose was to “protect people” who had been “subjected to bullying and genocide … for the last eight […]

History

Russia in Ukraine: Basing Land Claims on Ethnicity/History rather than Int’l Law always leads to Bloody Conflict

Ronald Suny

From: The Conversation: The first casualty of war, says historian Ronald Suny, is not just the truth. Often, he says, “it is what is left out.” Russian President Vladimir Putin began a full-scale attack on Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022 and many in the world are now getting a crash course in the complex and […]