An Empire of Sanctions

A syllabus from the Historians for Peace and Democracy

Sanctions are now the preferred economic weapon that the United States uses to pressure, discipline and coerce enemies and even allies.  Sanctions restrict targeted states from importing, exporting and receiving investments; they prohibit US corporations and banks from dealing with those countries, and they limit the economic activities of individuals in ...
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An Empire of Sanctions

Women’s History, An Origin Story

In 1975, Carroll Smith-Rosenberg published “The Female World of Love and Ritual, and changed how my generation of feminists understood the practice of history

I first encountered Carroll Smith-Rosenberg’s “The Female World of Love and Ritual” in 1978. I was twenty and a junior at Yale. A teaching assistant passed it on to me when I met with her after class: a paper was due and my mind was empty. She said that there ...
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Women’s History, An Origin Story

The Future of Our Past

Digital archives and the democratization of knowledge

Usually, when I tell my students that our course will focus on archives, they almost fall asleep in front of me. In fact, it seems that the mere mention of the word “archive” triggers a yawning reflex. People imagine the archive as a far, distant, dark and dusty space, where ...
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The Future of Our Past