The interior of a Nootka house

Seeing Cannibals in the Enlightenment

The responses British and Spanish explorers had to the Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) people and their alleged cannibalism came down to imperialist goals.
A shot taken in front of a concert stage lit in the night, people are visible waving and clapping, but no one is recognizable.

Japanese Tourists at the Dancehall

For some young, working-class Japanese men and women, Jamaican reggae clubs offer an escape from cultural norms and a way to gain currency in the music world.
A flat boulder raised on a pinnacle of ice, by Louis Haghe after J.D. Forbes

How Sports Shaped Glacier Science

The heroic masculinity that governed early glacial science had its roots in nineteenth-century British sporting culture.
The French police arrest the Jews on the orders of the German occupiers and take their personal details, Paris, 1941

Policing the Holocaust in Paris

Unlike in the rest of Nazi-occupied Europe, the arrest of Jewish people was largely in the hands of ordinary policemen in France, especially in Paris.
Nature Morte Aux Citrons, 1918 by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

When French Citrus Colonized Algeria

The citrus industry in Algeria honed French imperial apparatuses and provided a means for France to define and shape the behavior of its colonial subjects.
A Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG women fighters pose as they stand near a check point in the outskirts of the destroyed Syrian town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, Syria. June 20, 2015.

Women Warriors Make Great Propaganda

The presence of female fighters gives legitimacy to armed rebellions and increases the chances of support from international NGOS and other external actors.
A painting of Hong Tianguifu being captured

Taiping: China’s Nineteenth-Century Civil War

Partially coinciding with the American Civil War, the Taiping “Rebellion” in China was one of the most destructive conflicts in history.
Aerial view towards waterfront of Road Town, Tortola

Becoming the British Virgin Islands

Grappling with a history shaped by colonialism, the British Virgin Islands have built a national identity that embraces change while distancing the neighbors.
Bangsawan, Malay opera Penang, circa 1895

Gonna Make You a (Bangsawan) Star

The bangsawan theater in early twentieth-century Malaya offered women a chance to build a public identity beyond marriage and motherhood.
Akbar and the Jesuits. Miniature from Akbarnama by Narsingh, c. 1600-03.

The Deep Roots of Mughal Tolerance

Under Akbar, the Mughal Empire instituted a policy known as sulh-i kull, which called for amicable reconciliation and tolerance toward all religions.