What Benedict Anderson’s classic account of nationalism’s origins misses about today’s world. ILLUSTRATION BY AARON LOWELL DENTON This is the first in a series of essays that will revisit classic works.   Whenever I land back in the United States after a trip abroad, I feel a warm rush of familiarity, a penetrating relief at having…

Zara Jemuel 12 April, 2024 MastodonFacebookTwitterEmailShare “Oppression follows logically from exploitation so as to guarantee the latter.”— Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa In Ceremonies of Possession Patricia Seed describes how the various colonizer nations introduced themselves to Indigenous peoples. The Spanish declared war by literally reading aloud a formal declaration. The French held elaborate processions with settlers…

From Israel’s bombing of Iran’s embassy in Damascus to Ecuador’s raid on the Mexican embassy in Quito, leaders feel emboldened by the impunity granted by the Global North to disregard diplomatic norms and respect. APRIL 11, 2024 Afshin Pirhashemi (Iran), Untitled, 2017. Dear friends, Greetings from the desk of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. We live in…

Reading list: Memoirs of ten Indian-American writers that contemplate meanings of home and identity Funny, introspective, and heartfelt narratives about carving a place for yourself in the world. Scroll Staff 3 hours ago You Can’t Be Serious, Kal Penn You Can’t Be Serious is a series of stories from Kal Penn’s idiosyncratic life. It’s about being…

The “Healing Quartet,” by “Samuel Shem,” probes medicine—and life. by Craig Lambert MARCH-APRIL 2024 Behind the Scenes: Craig Lambert’s writing process IN 1968, Stephen Bergman ’66, M.D. ’73, was driving through the desert in Morocco on a dead-straight road. At one point, he noticed the sun going down directly in front of him while the…