Essay Eugenic fantasies October 17, 2024 The topic of intellectual disability seems frequently to function as a conversation stopper, and establishing the full humanity of individuals with complex developmental impairments has been an ongoing struggle in every nation in the world, including the U.S. Read More
Podcast The Book of Yerba Mate October 17, 2024 Brewed from the dried leaves and tender shoots of an evergreen tree native to South America, yerba mate gives its drinkers the jolt of liquid effervescence many of us get from coffee or tea. Read More
Essay Einstein Papers Project’s newest volume: Einstein wrestles with politics and physics, 1929–1930 October 16, 2024 Since 1987 the Einstein Papers Project, based at Caltech, has been releasing a volume of Einstein's correspondence and papers approximately every three years. Volume 17 finds Einstein living mainly in Berlin, though traveling throughout Europe to attend conferences and receive honorary degrees. Read More
Essay Einstein Papers Project’s editors’ reflections on The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Volume 17 October 16, 2024 Josh Eisenthal, EPP Editor, reflects on Einstein's second meeting with Rabindranath Tagore. Read More
Essay Deep time and the Civil War dead October 15, 2024 In rocky tombs, formed millions of years before Gettysburg, rested the fossilized remains of a riotous wonder of life that had cavorted and gnashed its way through the continent’s primordial seas and landscapes. This lost world had been unearthed piecemeal in the decades between the Revolution and the Civil War. Read More
Interview Paul Reitter and Paul North on Karl Marx’s Capital October 08, 2024 Paul Reitter and Paul North discuss the creation, reception, and future of “Capital.” Read More
Essay Up from feudalism: the Black American liberal tradition October 03, 2024 What did it mean to be an enlightened “liberal” in the United States before the twentieth century? What’s race got to do with it? Read More
Essay Narrative images, sacred places September 30, 2024 Close inspection of a "kalamkari" shows the work is exemplary of early modern temple paintings, which in form and subject mirror the concentric enclosing walls of the Hindu temple. Read More
Essay Ungoverning: an unfamiliar name for an unfamiliar danger September 30, 2024 The idea that those entrusted with responsibility for governing a democracy would intentionally make the state less capable—degrading its ability to collect taxes, to deliver mail, to conduct diplomacy, to prosecute violations of civil rights—is almost unthinkable. We call this “ungoverning.” Read More
Essay Numbing memories September 23, 2024 For over a quarter century, many millions in the US have captured moments of their daily lives and shared them online, from the mildly amusing and banal to the shocking and painful. Read More
Podcast Karl Marx’s Capital September 18, 2024 This magnificent new edition of Capital is a translation of Marx for the twenty-first century. It is the first translation into English to be based on the last German edition revised by Marx himself, the only version that can be called authoritative, and it features extensive commentary and annotations by Paul North and Paul Reitter that draw on the latest scholarship and provide invaluable perspective on the book and its complicated legacy. Read More
Essay The right way to drink yerba mate September 18, 2024 The first time someone from North America tries yerba mate in the traditional style, with a gourd or cattle horn stuffed with smokey green leaves and the metal drinking straw, we often break one of the unwritten rules of the South American drink. Read More
Reading List Smart books for humans on artificial intelligence September 17, 2024 AI’s involvement in everyday life is ever-evolving, with significant implications for how we work, live, and traverse fields from education to healthcare. As this powerful technology is incorporated into more services and products that we rely upon, here are some books that can help us to embrace human agency and navigate this new digital age. Read More
Video Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor on AI Snake Oil September 17, 2024 Confused about AI and worried about what it means for your future and the future of the world? You’re not alone. In these videos, Arvind and Sayash address common questions about AI. Read More
Essay Readers, receipts, and the history of empire September 16, 2024 As long as there have been documents, there have been functional archives. In the nineteenth century, a period of immense imperial expansion, the formation of the functional archive was tightly tied to the ideological project of empire building. Read More
