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Protestors at Oxford University, with one holding a sign that reads "End Racism Now."

What Is Decolonisation?

There’s more talk of decolonisation than ever, while true independence for former colonies has faded from view. Why?
by Lydia Walker via Aeon on November 21, 2024
The Puerto Rican flag outside the Governor's residence in San Juan.
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The Catch-22 of Puerto Rico's Status Referendum

When Puerto Ricans go to the polls, they can express their choice for several status options for the island.
by Christina D. Ponsa-Kraus via Made By History on October 11, 2024
A rally for the 1970 Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention hosted by the Black Panthers.

Democracy Was a Decolonial Project

For generations of American radicals, the path to liberation required a new constitution, not forced removal.
by Aziz Rana via Boston Review on May 30, 2024
Drawing of Patrice Lumumba with Congolese people in the background.

The Real Story Behind Patrice Lumumba’s Assassination

A new book sorts through the fate of the leader of the fight for Congolese independence.
by Isaac Chotiner via The New Yorker on October 30, 2023
The United States flag flying above that of Guam.

Trapped by Empire

The government of Guam has appointed a Commission on Decolonization, but U.S. control means that all of the island’s options have substantial downsides.
by Van Jackson via Dissent on February 8, 2023
Haitian gang members carrying assault rifles, standing in the center of a stylized rifle sight.

Haiti’s Agents Of Fear

Haitians are caught between the grip of violent gangs and the messy legacies of foreign intervention.
by Matthew J. Smith via Noema on October 29, 2024
Barack Obama speaking in front of a museum exhibit titled "Writing the Constitution."

The Constitution and the American Left

A culture of reverence for the U.S. Constitution shields the founding document from criticism, despite its many shortcomings.
by Aziz Rana via Dissent on July 19, 2024
Aziz Rana.

Aziz Rana Wants Us to Stop Worshipping the Constitution

A conversation with the legal scholar on why it is unusual that the Constitution is core to American national identity.
by Aziz Rana, Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins via The Nation on June 3, 2024
Student protesters at Columbia University in April 1968.

Reviving the Language of Empire

On revisiting the anti-imperialism of the 1960s and ’70s amid the return of left internationalism.
by Aziz Rana, Nora Caplan-Bricker via Jewish Currents on May 9, 2024
Side-by-side photographs of Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison.

On Garrison, Douglass, and American Colonialism

Examining how William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass interpreted the nation's relationship with the Constitution.
by Maggie Blackhawk via LPE Project on April 22, 2024
Carl McIntire reading the Christian Manifesto outside Riverside Church in New York City and on the right, McIntire leaves Riverside Church, where the Christian Manifesto hangs above the doorway.

The U.S. Culture Wars Abroad: Liberal-Evangelical Rivalry and Decolonization in Southern Africa

As evangelicals worked to gain public legitimacy during the Cold War, historians of evangelicalism search for a usable past for their fellow believers.
by Gene Zubovich via Process: A Blog for American History on January 23, 2024
U.S. Ambassador Daniel Moynihan discusses violence in the Middle East at the U.N. Security Council
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Changing Views on Israel Isolating the U.S. at the U.N.

Americans have been isolated at the U.N. on Israel for a half century — but that used to prompt fierce debate.
by Sean T. Byrnes via Made By History on January 18, 2024
Closed fist with faces of Judith Shklar, Hannah Arendt, Isaiah Berlin, and Lionel Trilling

Cold War Liberalism Is Still With Us. Is That a Good Thing?

A scholarly roundtable on Samuel Moyn's new book.
by Jan-Werner Müller, Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, Nicolas Guilhot, Penny Marie von Eschen, Vaughn Rasberry via The Chronicle of Higher Education on October 2, 2023
Miles Davis, Howard McGhee, and unknown pianist. NYC, September 1947.

On Menand’s "The Free World" and Dinerstein’s "The Origins of Cool in Postwar America"

Two differing explorations of post-WWII culture, politics, and ideals.
by Michael J. Kramer via Society for U.S. Intellectual History on May 21, 2023
W. E. B. Du Bois, 1958

Another Side of W.E.B. Du Bois

A conversation on Du Bois' perspective on empire and democracy, the development of his anti-imperial thought, and his vision for transnational solidarity.
by Adom Getachew, Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, Jennifer Pitts via The Nation on May 10, 2023
The cover of the United Nations FAO-Unesco Soil Map of the World, 1974.

The Earth for Man

Redistributing land was once central to global development efforts—and it should be today.
by Jo Guldi via Boston Review on May 3, 2023
President John F. Kennedy meets with William Fitzjohn, Sierra Leone's charge d’affairs in Washington, in the Oval Office on April 27, 1961.

The African Diplomats Who Protested Segregation in the U.S.

Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy publicly apologized after restaurants refused to serve Black representatives of newly independent nations.
by Francine Uenuma via Smithsonian on February 24, 2023
Image from cover of "Reconsidering Reparations"

Reconsidering Reparations

Reparations must be rooted in a political context that will safeguard rather than erode the gains they make towards justice.
by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò via LPE Project on February 21, 2023
Five globes shaped like human faces, connected by threads.

It’s Time to Rethink the Idea of the “Indigenous”

Many groups who identify as Indigenous don’t claim to be first peoples; many who came first don’t claim to be Indigenous. Can the idea escape its colonial past?
by Manvir Singh via The New Yorker on February 20, 2023
Arlen Parsa's Painting, Declaration of Independence Revisited (2019), the famous painting of the signing but with red dots over the faces of slaveholders.

How to Decolonize the Capitol

Art historians, legislators, and activists have long decried themes of white supremacy in the art collection of the U.S. Capitol. Can this place be decolonized?
by Marisa Angell Brown via Places Journal on June 14, 2022
Thomas Kitchin's 1760 map of the "Cherokee Nation".

The Remapping of America—From an Indigenous Point of View

New maps can revive Cherokee place names in Southern Appalachia and restore crucial knowledge amid an environmental catastrophe.
by Gregory D. Smithers via The New Republic on January 17, 2022
MLK receiving an honorary degree from the Free University, Amsterdam, October 20, 1956.

The International MLK

“The social revolution which is taking place in this country is not an isolated, detached phenomenon. It is part of a worldwide revolution that is taking place.”
by Robert Greene II via Black Perspectives on January 17, 2022
Black and white photograph of Mississippi SNCC workers at conference at Tougaloo College, 1965.

SNCC’s Unruly Internationalism

Though the organization’s legacy has been domesticated, its grassroots leadership embraced the global fight for freedom.
by Dan Berger via Boston Review on November 15, 2021
Richard Wright.

Outcasts and Desperados

Reflections on Richard Wright’s recently published novel, "The Man Who Lived Underground."
by Adam Shatz via London Review of Books on October 4, 2021
President Duterte saluting at monument
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July Fourth is Independence Day for Two Countries. But for One It is Hollow.

For the Philippines, independence from the United States came with strings attached.
by Christopher Capozzola via Made By History on July 4, 2021
Tulsa after race massacre

The Tulsa Race Massacre Went Way Beyond “Black Wall Street”

Most Black Tulsans in 1921 were working class. But these days, it seems like the fate of those few blocks in and around “Black Wall Street” is all that matters.
by Robin D. G. Kelley, George Yancy via Truthout on June 1, 2021
Demonstrators holding signs and Palestinian flag

‘We Know Occupation’: The Long History of Black Americans’ Solidarity with Palestinians

Why the Black Lives Matter movement might help shift the conversation about a conflict thousands of miles away.
by Sam Klug via Politico Magazine on May 30, 2021
Person on beach with a cigar in their mouth and holding money in their hand

The End of Empire and the Rise of Tax Havens

How decolonisation propelled the growth of low-tax jurisdictions, with lasting economic implications for former colonies.
by Vanessa Ogle via New Statesman on December 18, 2020
Fidel Castro and Malcom X sitting and laughing together

'Ten Days in Harlem': An Interview with Historian Simon Hall

Fidel Castro's visit to Harlem at the intersection of two themes that shaped the 1960s: the Black freedom struggle and global protest during the Cold War.
by Say Burgin, Simon Hall via Black Perspectives on August 31, 2020
Two men sitting on a couch and laughing, with an American flag behind them

The Conceit of American Indispensability

As we mine the 1940s for alternate visions of international order, we must not presume that the US remains the benevolent center of global politics.
by Sam Klug via Boston Review on August 18, 2020
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