Christopher Grasso— They called him “The Hero of the Southwest.” John R. Kelso, an officer in the Missouri State Militia cavalry, gained regional fame during the Civil War for battling Southern guerrillas, and stories about his bravery and daring spread. Friend and foe alike marveled at what one reporter called
Josh Chafetz— It’s hard to keep track of all of the ongoing investigations into the Trump campaign and administration. At the very least, we know of inquiries by special counsel Robert Mueller and the FBI under the auspices of the Justice Department and by four separate congressional committees: the House
What role does social media play in networked protests? Zeynep Tufekci discusses this, online privacy, and how to combat fake news online.
Valerie Neal— In the 1960s, Americans were clear about the reasons to embark on travel across the vast new ocean of space. More than once, President John F. Kennedy presented a clear and compelling rationale, best distilled in a speech delivered at Rice University on September 12, 1962. Near the
To mark the publication of Stephen D. King’s Grave New World: The End of Globalization, The Return of History, we chatted with Stephen about the implications of globalization, and what the return of history means for the western economy and nation states. 1. The subtitle of Grave New World is “The End of
Priyamvada Natarajan— Rather unusually, the team leaders who led the observational efforts that discovered dark energy were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2009 for a discovery from 1998, a rather swift reward by normal standards in physics. According to Alfred Nobel’s wishes, this annual physics prize can be awarded to
Alvin Felzenberg shares stories about William F. Buckley, from his early family life to the formation of the modern conservative movement.
Mohammad Fadel— The great western scholar of Islamic law, the late Joseph Schacht, famously characterized Islamic law as a “jurist’s law,” by which he meant to draw scholarly attention to the central role that scholars of the law—the fuqahāʾ (s. faqīh)—played in the formulation of Islamic law in contrast to
Peter Marshall— The Reformation in England—heralded by Henry VIII’s repudiation of the authority of the pope in 1533-4—is usually conceived of as a process of societal conversion, through which one kind of religious culture gradually transformed itself into another. A fundamentally Catholic nation became an overtly Protestant one, and the
Benjamin Madley— As the sun rose on July 7, 1846, four U.S. warships rode at anchor in Monterey Bay. Ashore, the Mexican tricolor cracked over the adobe walls and red-tiled roofs of California’s capitol for the last time. At 7:30 a.m., Commodore John Sloat sent Captain William Mervine ashore “to