By Ben Kiernan (NHC Fellow, 2006–07) For thirty years Ben Kiernan has been deeply involved in the study of genocide and crimes against humanity. He has played a key role in unearthing confidential documentation of the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge. His writings have transformed our understanding not only of twentieth-century Cambodia but also … Continued
By Ásta (NHC Fellow, 2016–17) We are women, we are men. We are refugees, single mothers, people with disabilities, and queers. We belong to social categories and they frame our actions, self-understanding, and opportunities. But what are social categories? How are they created and sustained? How does one come to belong to them? Ásta approaches … Continued
By Orin Starn (NHC Fellow, 2001–02) After the Yahi were massacred in the mid-nineteenth century, Ishi survived alone for decades in the mountains of northern California, wearing skins and hunting with bow and arrow. His capture in 1911 made him a national sensation; anthropologist Alfred Kroeber declared him the world's most "uncivilized" man and made … Continued
By John L. Jackson, Jr. (NHC Fellow, 2005–06) The Civil War put an end to slavery, and the civil rights movement put an end to legalized segregation. Crimes motivated by racism are punished with particular severity, and Americans are more sensitive than ever about the words they choose when talking about race. And yet America … Continued
By Ajantha Subramanian (NHC Fellow, 2011–12) Just as Americans least disadvantaged by racism are most likely to endorse their country as post‐racial, Indians who have benefited from their upper-caste affiliation rush to declare their country post‐caste. In The Caste of Merit, Ajantha Subramanian challenges this comfortable assumption by illuminating the controversial relationships among technical education, caste formation, and … Continued
By Claudia Koonz (NHC Fellow, 1993–94) The Nazi conscience is not an oxymoron. In fact, the perpetrators of genocide had a powerful sense of right and wrong, based on civic values that exalted the moral righteousness of the ethnic community and denounced outsiders. Claudia Koonz’s latest work reveals how racial popularizers developed the infrastructure and … Continued
The story of Roman Catholicism in the nineteenth century IS the story of immigration. Until about 1845, the Roman Catholic population of the United States was a small minority of mostly English Catholics, who were often quite socially accomplished. But when several years of devastating potato famine led millions of Irish Catholics to flee to … Continued
To confront rising intolerance in the 1870s, Chinese leaders in California appealed to local governments, Congress, and the President for fair treatment. In an 1873 appeal to the San Francisco city council, Chinese merchants offered a solution to the “Chinese question” that used thinly veiled irony to expose the pretense of Californians’ anti-Chinese demands. While … Continued
While many Americans (and many historians) present a narrative in which voting rights expanded in the early 19th century, then were retracted for African-American men in the 1880s, the history of disfranchisement demonstrates the long history of technical manipulation of voter registration, a practice that continues to shape voting rights in the United States. In … Continued
Even amidst celebrations of their diverse contributions to American society and culture, immigrants have long confronted suspicion, prejudice, and xenophobia. As a result, they also have a long history of fighting for equality. This webinar will examine the contradictory impulses of American history towards immigration and the ways immigrants and their allies have fought to … Continued