The Great Patriotic War, shorthand for the war against Nazi Germany, has become the focal point of Russian nationalism under Vladimir Putin.  Memories of the war bolster the legitimacy of Putin’s grip on power while offering Russians a feel good narrative about their national past.  Rather than reducing the celebration of the Great Patriotic War…

From Spain to the Baltic States Europe is littered with sites connected to the personal lives of former dictators.  Birthplaces, childhood homes, summer and winter residences, mausoleums and tombs these sites of dictators can be powerful poles of attraction for extremists, nostalgists, and dark tourists.  They can also offer opportunities to bolster democratic systems by…

The National Rifle Association, known simply as the NRA, is commonly regarded as one of the most powerful lobbies in the United States. If much needed gun reform never sees the light of day, the power of the NRA to influence lawmakers and shape legislation is often held to blame.  In On Target: Gun Culture,…

The greatest democracy in history, a beacon of freedom, a selfless force of good in the world, these are all elements of American exceptionalism.  These are the ways Americans see their nation, its relationship to others, and its place in the world. But what happens when a sudden and unexpected catastrophe threatens this identity?  This…

In June 2004 a thirty-member multiracial task force known as the Philadelphia Coalition stood on the stage of the Neshoba County Coliseum before a crowd of a thousand people.  What was unique about the Philadelphia Coalition wasn’t that whites finally joined Neshoba County blacks in commemorating the lives and deaths of three young civil rights…

How can a wounded land become a source of healing, rejuvenation and renewal?  How can a former death strip become a lifeline connecting a painful past to the promise of the future?  Bates College Environmental Studies Professor Sonja Pieck explains how this is precisely what is happening with Germany’s Green Belt.  The Green Belt is…

During the Great Depression the capitalist system in the United States neared the point of collapse.  The stock market plunged to its lowest point in the century, the banking system was at risk of failing, and unemployment peaked at a quarter of the workforce.  Just as the country reached its economic nadir, Franklin Roosevelt‘s New…

Historian Georgiy Kasianov has authored, co-authored, and co-edited over twenty books on his native country of Ukraine.  I had the opportunity to speak with him in February 2024 about his book Memory Crash: The Politics of History in and around Ukraine 1980s-2010s.  Georgiy’s interest in the memory politics of Ukraine grew out of his own…

How can we work toward a greater degree of freedom and justice for all if our memories of the past are fundamentally different?  How can we pursue the general welfare and wellbeing of the people without common reference points?  This is the dilemma raised by the Make America Great Again slogan.  In Trump and the…

Under the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr. the 1960s civil rights movement achieved far reaching legal and political changes.  University of Southern California sociologist Hajar Yazdiha points out that not surprisingly a myriad of other disenfranchised and marginalized groups looked to the example and framed themselves as an extension of the work of King…