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Society

Essays and videos on social issues, history, political life and the future
A woman with glasses and a colourful African headscarf is holding a child. They are outdoors in a rocky, hilly landscape. The path ahead appears scattered with small white stones.

video

Human rights and justice

When a burial for slave trade victims is unearthed, a small island faces a reckoning

29 minutes

President Eisenhower and Kwame Nkrumah talking. Nkrumah is wearing traditional African attire and pointing at Eisenhower, who is wearing a suit.

essay

Global history

The route to progress

Anticolonial modernity was founded upon the fight for liberation from communists, capitalists and imperialists alike

Frank Gerits

People decorating a school courtyard with green and yellow bunting.

video

Architecture

West Africa was once an architectural laboratory. Is it time for a revival?

12 minutes

A close-up of a weathered, rusty metal plate attached to a deteriorating wooden surface with bolts, showing corrosion and peeling layers.

essay

Global history

One ship, many stories

How a single, unglamorous, workaday merchant vessel tells the history of the 19th-century world in many violent chapters

Boyd Cothran & Adrian Shubert

A vintage illustration of a steam train crossing a bridge over a river with a town and mountains in the background, surrounded by lush greenery.

essay

Global history

Reconstructed hemisphere

In the 19th century, civil wars tore apart the US, Mexico and Argentina. Then came democracy’s fight against reaction

Evan C Rothera

Medieval painting of a bearded man in ornate armour on horseback, hunting in a forest. He holds a spear as his horse rears over a slain animal.

essay

Global history

The Asian world order

Before modern Europe existed there was a grand, interconnected political world, rich in scientific and artistic exchange

Ayşe Zarakol

An intricate, colourful Persian artwork depicting a central figure on a throne, with four attendants surrounded by floral and animal motifs.

essay

History of technology

A silken web

From its mythic beginnings in a Chinese garden, the story of silk is a window into how weaving has shaped human history

Peter Frankopan, Marie-Louise Nosch & Feng Zhao

Medieval illustration of a crowned figure, holding a sceptre, wearing a blue cloak over an intricately patterned robe, seated against a parchment background.

video

Religion

Hear from blasphemes, sceptics and free-thinkers in this ‘tour of medieval unbelief’

52 minutes

Many figures in traditional dress are gathered beneath a structure from which hang paper lists. In the foreground are horses. The colours are muted with age

essay

Education

The exam that broke society

Keju, China’s incredibly difficult civil service test, strengthened the state at the cost of freedom and creativity

Yasheng Huang

Illustration of a smiling figure with a topknot, red cheeks, and a small goatee. The background features abstract, pastel-blue and light-brown brush strokes.

video

Global history

Meet the jesters who’ve spoken truth to power around the globe and across centuries

5 minutes

A black and white photo showing a group of men in traditional Middle Eastern attire, with two men seated in the foreground and several standing behind.

essay

Religion

Praying in shoes

The Sunni movement of Salafism was born at the beginning of the 20th century, with the goal of modelling life on the 7th

Aaron Rock-Singer

Japanese and five-colour flags waving in the foreground with a sunset and two silhouetted figures on a horizon in the background, text in Japanese on the right.

essay

Nations and empires

Settler colonialism

Displacing and destroying peoples by colonisation is not just a historical Western evil but a global and contemporary one

Lachlan McNamee

A man in a uniform stands in a garden filled with tall green plants and yellow flowers, smoking a cigarette.

essay

Nations and empires

Dream of the Russian tropics

Imperial Russia had little access to the bountiful tropics that other empires enjoyed. So it created its own in the Caucasus

Oleksandr Polianichev

Illustration of a historic round pavilion with ornate statues and columns, surrounded by trees, with people in period attire nearby.

video

Architecture

Tour the European architecture that dreamed of a wondrous, fictitious China

16 minutes

A collage of 12 black-and-white photos showing people in traditional attire engaged in various activities.

video

Thinkers and theories

Photographs offer a colonialist window to the past – one that must be challenged

14 minutes

Aerial view of extremely densely packed buildings in Kowloon Walled City, surrounded by taller residential blocks and an open park area.

video

Cities

The rise and fall of Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong’s infamous urban monolith

18 minutes

Massive explosion with bright orange and yellow flames in the sky, seen from a distance on a country road with trees and fields nearby.

essay

Global history

The polycrisis

Is this the word we need to describe unprecedented convergences between ecological, political and economic strife?

Ville Lähde

Traditional Chinese landscape painting depicting misty mountains, trees, and a river with boats, accompanied by Chinese calligraphy in the upper right corner.

essay

Environmental history

Masts like a forest

How the trees of China – fir, camphor, ironwood and nanmu – were used to build an empire that lasted for centuries

Ian M Miller

Historic nautical map depicting the Pacific Ocean with detailed coastlines, islands, and ships sailing in the sea, surrounded by navigation lines.

essay

Demography and migration

Asians in early America

Asian sailors came to the west coast of America in 1587. Within a century they were settled in colonies from Mexico to Peru

Diego Javier Luis

Image of a box of mangoes with red stickers, alongside a picture and a book featuring a portrait on a grey textured background.

video

Nations and empires

The strange tale of how mangoes became hallowed objects in Maoist China

6 minutes

A painting depicting a wild-eyed, distressed figure with long hair devouring a person in a dark background, displaying a dramatic and intense scene.

video

Art

Tracing Goya’s ‘dark’ journey from Spanish court painter to macabre visionary

51 minutes

A section of an old map featuring a centaur, the Tower of Babel labelled “Babilonia”, and surrounding medieval illustrations with Latin text.

video

Global history

The famed medieval map that stretched beyond Earth to heaven, history and myth

5 minutes

Children in school uniforms reading books in a dimly lit classroom. The window is open, showing greenery outside.

essay

Language and linguistics

The problem with English

Is Earth’s most-spoken language a living ‘gift’ or a many-headed ‘monster’? Both views distract us from the real dilemma

Mario Saraceni

A historical photo showing people and horses near a decorated archway with intricate patterns, likely an entrance gate. The background features a large wall.

essay

Global history

After the mother tongues

Cultural exchange between Iran and India led to the creation of literary histories that inspired modern nationalism

Alexander Jabbari