People didn’t live in insulated communities when the Roman empire fell. Villagers buried people who migrated from far away as one of their own.
Population growth fuels knowledge, leading to new technology and energy use, fueling more population growth.
Robert Essel/The Image Bank via Getty Images
The UN estimates the global population will pass 8 billion people on Nov. 15, 2022. From the Stone Age to today, here’s how things spiraled out of control.
Statues of pharaoh Tutankhamun and mythology jackal.
JK21/Shutterstock
The discovery of Tutankhamun’s ancient Egyptian tomb in 1922 thrilled the world. But people know more about rumours of a curse than the amazing things science revealed about the boy king.
Glasgow’s harbour on the River Clyde was an artery of the industrial revolution.
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Women in the textile factories of 19th-century Glasgow faced terrible working conditions. In fighting for their rights, they prepared the ground for feminists today.
People understand the world through the stories they are told and tell, a historian writes. In the case of the war in Ukraine, narratives can create problems.
Numerous rap songs criticize the Reagan administration for its complicity in the illicit drug trade.
Wally McNamee/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images
Ronald Reagan may have been known as ‘The Great Communicator,’ but rap artists don’t view his legacy through such rose-colored glasses. A professor of Black studies and history takes a closer look.
Richard III’s story still has the power to fascinate and divide.
Granger Historical Picture Archive / Alamy
Stephen Frears’ film is adding to the furore surrounding Richard III, England’s most controversial king. New research examines what prompts such ferocious debate.
Archival records don’t tell the whole story, but they can provide valuable information.
(Shutterstock)
A teenage domestic servant showed signs of possession, and a miller was accused of witchcraft. Considering records of these events helps clarify what we can and cannot know about the past.
Cup and saucer commemorating the opening of Federal Parliament 1927.
National Museum of Australia
As water dripped in a remote cave, it left behind evidence of every monsoon season for a millennium. Scientists say it holds a warning for a country about to become the most populous on Earth.
Western museums need to meaningfully come to terms with their colonial past and present to fulfil their role as places of knowledge.
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Western museums are beginning to re-evaluate how they portray cultures and history and return stolen artifacts. But for change to be meaningful, it needs to be truly inclusive.
There have been three before him, none of whom are exactly the model for a successful reign.
Deportation of Tantura’s women and children, from Fureidis to Tulkarm, three weeks after the Israeli takeover. The documentary, Tantura, aims to shed light on the destruction of the Palestinian village in 1948.
(Israel State Archive, Benno Rothenberg collection)