Site News & Featured Content (RSS FEED)

(Nov 19) (article) 1989 Twenty Years On: The End of Communism and the Fate of Eastern Europe
Check out our December Origins article: http://tinyurl.com/y9twl5b

(Nov 2) (book review) 428 AD: An Ordinary Year at the End of the Roman Empire
Check our November book review of Giusto Train's new book on the end of the Roman empire: http://tinyurl.com/yk4eood

(Oct 15) Article: Population Bomb? The Debate over Indian Population
Check out our November Origins article: http://tinyurl.com/ykaem32

(Oct 1) (Review) Famine: A Short History
Check out our October book review of Cormac Ó Gráda's latest book Famine http://tinyurl.com/ycjqcrv

(Sep 23) Article: From Baghdad to Kabul: The Historical Roots of U.S. Counterinsurgency Doctrine
October Origins Article! http://tinyurl.com/klv2vm

(Sep 23) Admiral Joseph Wenger Letter
We've added a letter from Admiral Wenger to our Primary Sources http://tinyurl.com/mlzose

(Sep 10) The Russian Revolution through the Prism of Propaganda
Check out our new MultiMedia History on Soviet propaganda posters: http://tinyurl.com/o6e73y

Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective (RSS FEED)

(December 2009) 1989 Twenty Years On: The End of Communism and the Fate of Eastern Europe (Theodora Dragostinova)
For those in the former Soviet Bloc, 1989 has been called an annus mirabilis -- a year of miracles. With astonishing speed, communist rule ended in Eastern Europe, the Berlin Wall came tumbling down, and the nature of Europe was changed entirely. In 2009, those countries, from Germany to Bulgaria to Poland, have all mounted celebrations of the twentieth anniversary of this hope-filled year. Yet, two decades after the collapse of communism, many in those countries found themselves unsure of what, precisely, they were celebrating. Did 1989 really mark a moment of out-with-the-old-and-in-with-the-new, and how much had really changed in the intervening years? This month historian Theodora Dragostinova explores the impact of 1989 on the region and the legacy of history in today's Eastern Europe.

(November 2009) Population Bomb? The Debate over Indian Population (Mytheli Sreenivas)
As the population of the globe surges past 6 billion, India is on the verge of surpassing China as the world's most populous nation. For at least two centuries India has struck many Westerners as a place that is over-populated, famine-prone, and, as a result, a threat to global stability. In fact, as historian Mytheli Sreenivas details, the question of 'over-population' is a relative one: is India producing too many people or too few resources? Does a growing population represent an opportunity or a danger? These questions take on a new urgency and relevance as India emerges as a major economic power and consumer society, and as the world confronts an ongoing food crisis. This month, Sreenivas puts these pressing concerns about population in historical perspective.

(October 2009) From Baghdad to Kabul: The Historical Roots of U.S. Counterinsurgency Doctrine (Peter R. Mansoor)
Renewed American efforts to 'win' the war in Afghanistan against a resurgent Taliban, as well as the ongoing war in Iraq, have kept the question of counterinsurgency strategy at the forefront of U.S. military and public life. This month, Peter R. Mansoor--a professor of history at Ohio State and a Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired) who served most recently as the executive officer to General David Petraeus, the Commanding General of Multi-National Force-Iraq--examines the historical patterns of counterinsurgency doctrine. He explores the lessons of the Iraq War for Afghanistan and the radical changes to U.S. strategy of the last few years.

(September 2009) The Long, Long Struggle for Women’s Rights in Afghanistan (Scott Levi)
In April of this year, a group of some 300 women protesters demanded that the government in Kabul repeal a repressive new law that went so far as to permit marital rape. They were publicly harassed and labeled “whores”. Around the world, many observers were outraged. The law seemed to signal a return to the kinds of policies that the Taliban had instituted when it ruled Afghanistan—when the burqa stood as a haunting symbol of the regime’s subjugation of women. While visitors to the country commonly report encountering a land somehow “lost in time” where women are almost completely absent from the public world, this month historian Scott Levi examines the century-long efforts to improve women's lives in Afghanistan.

(August 2009) Becoming 'European': The Diverging Paths of the Czech and Slovak Republics (Donald A. Hempson)
Rising from the ashes of the Second World War, the European Union has been perhaps the most important development in modern European history. Initially, it only included those countries we think of as ‘Western Europe.’ Since the collapse of the Soviet empire, however, membership in the EU has expanded dramatically and rapidly and now includes some 27 nations. This has created not simply logistical complications, but a debate over what ‘European’ means. This month, historian Donald Hempson looks at two recent joiners—The Czech Republic (which recently held the EU's rotating presidency) and Slovakia (which recently adopted the Euro currency)—and how their histories have defined their approaches to European integration.

(July 2009) Building a New Silk Road? Central Asia in the New World Order (Sébastien Peyrouse)
With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 five new nations gained independence in Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. When they emerged onto the world stage they were little understood in the West, often confused with one another, and the subject of jokes on late-night TV. Increasingly, however, these nations demand our attention, whether because of the oil and gas resources in the region, because of the environmental crises — most dramatically the disappearance of the Aral Sea — and because of the strategic location between Russia, China and Afghanistan.

(June 2009) Pirates of Puntland, Somalia (Andrew J. Carlson)
In the first week of April, Somali pirates raided an American-flagged ship in the Indian Ocean and took the captain hostage. It was only one of several raids along the Somali coast in a 48 hour period. In recent months and years, pirates have made the Horn of Africa the most dangerous place to navigate in the world. This month, historian Andy Carlson examines the very long history of piracy in the region, and explores how the political problems of Somalia as a 'failed state' have contributed to the current wave of maritime brigandage.

Origins Podcasts (RSS FEED)

(December 2009: Theodora Dragostinova)
1989 Twenty Years On: The End of Communism and the Fate of Eastern Europe

(November 2009: Mytheli Sreenivas)
Population Bomb? The Debate over Indian Population

(October 2009: Peter R. Mansoor)
From Baghdad to Kabul: The Historical Roots of U.S. Counterinsurgency Doctrine

(September 2009: Scott Levi)
The Long, Long Struggle for Women’s Rights in Afghanistan

(August 2009: Donald A. Hempson)
Becoming 'European': The Diverging Paths of the Czech and Slovak Republics

(July 2009: Sébastien Peyrouse)
Building a New Silk Road? Central Asia in the New World Order

(June 2009: Andrew J. Carlson)
Pirates of Puntland, Somalia

(May 2009: Kevin Boyle)
Requiem: Detroit and the Fate of Urban America

(April 2009: Stephanie Coontz)
The Real Marriage Revolution

(February 2009: Ahmad A. Sikainga)
'The World's Worst Humanitarian Crisis': Understanding the Darfur Conflict

(March 2009: Edin Hajdarpašic and Emil Kerenji)
Kosovo's Year Zero: Between a Balkan Past and a European Future

(January 2009: Patricia Weitsman )
With a Little Help from Our Friends?: The Costs of Coalition Warfare

(December 2008: Mitchell Lerner)
Making Sense of the 'Hermit Kingdom': North Korea in the Nuclear Age

(November 2008: Stephen F. Jones )
Clash in the Caucasus: Georgia, Russia, and the Fate of South Ossetia

(October 2008: Bruce Kuklick )
Punishing the Past: Presidential Elections in Times of Crisis (1932, 1968, 2008)

(September 2008: Mansel Blackford)
A Tale of Two Fisheries: Fishing and Over-Fishing in American Waters

(August 2008: Alfred Senn)
Playing Politics: Olympic Controversies Past and Present

(July 2008: David Watt)
What's in a Name?: The Meaning of 'Muslim Fundamentalist'

(June 2008: Christopher A. Reed)
Taiwan's 2008 Elections: A New Direction for the 'Other China'?

(May 2008: Lawrence Bowdish)
(Fore)Closing on the American Dream

(April 2008: Claire Robertson)
Beyond “Tribes”: Violence and Politics in Kenya

(March 2008: Marlene Laruelle)
After Putin? Russia's Presidential Elections

(February 2008: Saul Cornell)
The Second Amendment Goes to Court

(January 2008: Peter Conn)
The Politics of International Adoption

(December 2007: John Guilmartin)
Conflict Termination: How to End—and Not to End—Insurgencies

(November 2007: Stephen Dale)
Tradition vs Charisma: The Sunni-Shi'i Divide in the Muslim World

(October 2007: Justin Lance)
Populism and Anti-Americanism in Modern Latin America

Book Reviews (RSS FEED)

(November 2009) 428 AD: An Ordinary Year at the End of the Roman Empire
Giusto Traina ((Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009. pp. xix, 203. Trans. by Allan Cameron))

(October 2009) Famine: A Short History
Cormac Ó Gráda ((Princeton University Press, 2009))

(September 2009) A Tale of Two Monasteries: Westminster and Saint-Denis is the Thirteenth Century
William Chester Jordan ((Princeton University Press, 2009))

(August 2009) Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present
Christopher I. Beckwith ((Princeton University Press 2009))

(July 2009) A Cruel Wind: Pandemic Flu in America, 1918-1920
Dorothy A. Pettit and Janice Bailie ((Timberlane Books, 2008))

(June 2009) The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman
Margot Mifflin ((Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009))

(May 2009) Caesar: A Life in Western Culture
Maria Wyke ((Chicago 2008))

(April 2009) The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany
Susannah Heschel ((Princeton University Press, 2008))

(March 2009) The City's End: Two Centuries of Fantasies, Fears, and Premonitions of New York's Destruction
Max Page ((New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008))

(February 2009) Robert Clifton Weaver and the American City: The Life and Times of an Urban Reformer
Wendell E. Pritchett ((University of Chicago Press, 2008))