Subjects Archives: History

Andy Higginbottom reviews Adam Hanieh’s crucial new book, Crude Capitalism.

Israel’s latest murderous assault on Lebanon is part of a recurring pattern of imperialist aggression.

In honor of the monumental life of Fredric Jameson (1934–2024), we republish an essay he wrote for the April 1996 issue of Monthly Review.

Toby Manning’s history of popular music in its historical context is a rich and rewarding exploration of the politics of music, finds Charles Marriott.

The beginning of the left movement in Sri Lanka goes back to 1935.

As the first city-states started to form in ancient Mesopotamia, fed by a patchwork of farms across the fertile land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, grain was stored in large siloes (in case of future shortages), and a surplus was generated for the first time, that was accumulated and controlled by a warrior class drawn from Mafia-like, oligarchic families, assisted by a priesthood that kept records and legitimized their rule via a mandate from the heavens.

In the coming days, the Filipino people will mark the historic termination of the Military Bases Agreement on September 16, 1991.

In the post-World War II period, Britain waged a number of covert wars in every corner of the world, as its financial and military clout rapidly withered.

Critical cultural historical perspective is not easy to obtain.

Baldwin theorizes whiteness as the psychology of empire.

H. Bruce Franklin, who died on May 19, 2024, at the age of 90, ranks among the great public intellectuals of our time. Carolyn L. Karcher writes on his immense legacy as a teacher, activist, and scholar.

How Palestine turned a classical musician and recovering child prodigy into a revolutionary.

As the annual marches commemorating William of Orange’s ascension to power draw to a close, Mark Hackett reflects on how the events of 1688 shaped the modern bourgeoise state.

Pulling back the Cold War curtain on Canada’s ignominious history of anti-communism.

How can we trace the wounds of colonialism in the art historical record?

A collection of more than a dozen people’s history stories from July 4th beyond 1776. The stories include July 4th anniversaries such as when slavery was abolished in New York (1827), Frederick Douglass’s speech “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro” (1852), the Reconstruction era attack on a Black militia that led to the Hamburg Massacre (1876), protest of segregation at an amusement park in Baltimore (1963), and more.

It is not easy to explain in such a limited space which philosophical, methodological, and practical features characterize the study of Kunstwissenschaft that arose from the insights won by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and were enriched by Vladimir Lenin, as well as many other scholars and revolutionaries.

[Britannica’s revisionist] distortions of the history of the Vietnamese struggle are just as radical and just as misleading [as those about the Soviet Union]. Here we may draw some valuable lessons about the hidden content of form: how apparently neutral principles of organization may shape meaning.

Contextualizing the Re-occupation of Barnhart Island in Shared Legacies of Struggle.

Holocaust survivors say using the Holocaust to justify genocide in Gaza and repress student protest on college campuses is a complete insult to the Holocaust’s memory.