I'm a writer who's interested in history, food, and culture. My background is as an academic: I got a PhD in History in 2019, writing about the anti-apartheid movement in the United States. While I love academic writing and the opportunity to take a deep dive on a subject, I also like to write about lots of different things and am always looking for a new story.
The "peace" that the United States brokered in Afghanistan wasn't expected to last, but it seems few officials in the Biden administration thought the government would collapse so quickly. Within a week, a rapid offensive by the Taliban captured nearly every major urban center in the country and led to the fall of the government this Sunday.
As a mob of diehard Trump supporters breached the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, commentators rushed to decry the events as a coup. But there are technical disagreements over that word, given that the sitting president and his acolytes were trying to maintain power, not attain it.
If you've ever played Sid Meier's Civilization , you've had a moment where you became a colonizer. I never set out to be a conquistador in game (and find it more than odd that it's celebrated as one of Spain's foundational histories), but there inevitably comes a time when there's a piece of land that I need that some other player has.
Bunny chow looks like a sandwich that's been beaten up after a night of heavy drinking and then forced back on its feet. A curry is stuffed into a hollowed-out loaf of white bread, allowing the walls of the bread to soak up the juice.
Amid the mass death of the coronavirus pandemic, it's easy to forget how close we came to war with Iran in 2020. Former President Donald Trump ordered the extrajudicial assassination of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, and it was only dumb luck that we avoided a larger conflict.
Being a historical society in the 21st century means grappling with declining attendance, ebbing participation and dwindling sources of funding. It also means asking big questions about the value and purpose of public history. Many local historical societies opened in the nineteenth century and existed to celebrate a specific history - namely, that of the white "pioneers" who first colonized that part of the world.
Apart from pineapples and macadamia nuts, Kona coffee might be the most recognizable Hawaiian product to reach consumers on the mainland. Advertising campaigns in the 20th century seized on mainlanders' fascination with the Hawaiian Islands, marketing the coffee as a novel delicacy.
Uplifting Black, Brown, and queer voices across the South-no matter who's in office. Today, Kansas City has gone from trying to bury the nerve center of the early jazz movement, to trying to redevelop it. Ironically, this recent push is motivated by many of the same reasons that city officials in the 1950s launched slum clearance.
Hawaii looms large in the imagination of the U.S. mainland as a tourist paradise: beautiful beaches and volcanoes, delicious food, and the spirit of "aloha," a spirit of welcoming.
Uplifting Black, Brown, and queer voices across the South-no matter who's in office. Rhythm and blues musician Jesse Stone, a Kansas City, Missouri native, once said "Kansas City... did more for jazz music, Black music, than any other influence at all."