The World That Was

The Great Depression pushed millions of Americans into catastrophic poverty. Here, a mother and her shoeless children stand beside their home, a tin shack, in Elm Grove, Oklahoma, 1st August 1936

Economists warn Trump’s policies will start a 1930s-era trade war

Economics

President Donald Trump is driving the global conversation on trade toward protectionism: the imposition of tariffs on imported goods. That may seem like a good idea on the surface, but most economists beg to differ. They point out that protectionism turned the economic chaos of the 1930s into a disaster.

Passengers alight from a train to enter City Airport in London, Britain.

London City Airport shut after WWII bomb found in the Thames

Conflict
A view of the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) building in Washington

What other countries (and history) can teach Americans about taxation

Economics
Roma prisoners in a concentration camp in the Transnistria region.

Moldova will build a monument to Roma victims of the Holocaust

Culture
Barcelona soccer fans make their feelings known about Catalan independence, at a game on Wednesday Oct 18th 2017

The roots of Catalonia’s differences with the rest of Spain

Culture
An illustration of a controversial new postage stamp in Ireland, with Irish artist, Jim Fitzpatrick, who created the famous two-tone image of Che Guevara used on the stamp

Ireland celebrates Che Guevara’s Irish roots with a stamp, despite opposition

Culture

A new postage stamp in the Republic of Ireland is causing a stink because it honors Latin American revolutionary Che Guevara, who was of partial Irish descent. But people in Ireland — and Miami — are denouncing Che — and the stamp — because of his history of violence.

The new monument to Mikhail Kalashnikov in Moscow

Russia puts Kalashnikov on a pedestal

Culture

Russia is celebrating the Kalashnikov rifle as “a cultural brand.” It has literally put the weapon’s inventor, Mikhail Kalashnikov, on a pedestal. A statue was unveiled in Moscow on Tuesday, amid much pomp and ceremony.

“The Spirit of ’76,” by Archibald Willard, which exemplifies the spirit of the citizen-nation in arms, with men of all ages stepping up when needed by their country, the antithesis of a professional, standing army, despised by the Founding Fathers

Trump wants a big military parade, but the Founding Fathers might not approve

Conflict

President Donald Trump has again mentioned the idea of having a massive military parade in Washington for the Fourth of July. Historically, the US has never put the military on such a pedestal. The Founding Fathers, in fact, despised the idea of a standing army of any sort.

Ho Chi Minh (standing, third from left), and Vo Nguyen Giap (in white suit), with an OSS team in 1945

The little-known story of Vietnamese communist leader Ho Chi Minh’s admiration for the US

Conflict

The founding father of modern Vietnam is Ho Chi Minh. He led Vietnam’s communist revolution against French colonial rule and then took on the United States. But it seems he long had an admiration for the US and repeatedly sought the country’s help in the decades before the Vietnam War.

An aerial view of devastation following Hurricane Irma on St Thomas, one of the main US Virgin Islands

How a violent history created the US Virgin Islands as we know them

Development

The US Virgin Islands are in the news because of the appalling devastation from Hurricane Irma. But what’s the islands’ backstory?