The Enemy of All Mankind

Several years ago, I read Steven Johnson’s The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic—And How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World. I never reviewed it here on the Margins, though a large sticky note on the inside cover listing a number of thought-provoking questions suggests that I intended to.* As…

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A Year in Review: 1919

I almost decided not to do a podcast looking at 1919, even though it has been on my editorial calendar* since roughly this time last year. My friend Elizabeth Lunday is doing an amazing job looking at 1919 in detail and from many different directions on her podcast The Year That Was.  It is living…

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Remembering the Amritsar Massacre: A Bloody Step Toward Indian Independence

World War I brought India one step closer to demanding its independence from Great Britain. Indian regiments sailed overseas and fought alongside their Canadian and Australian counterparts. (If you visit the memorial gateway at Ypres, you will see how many of them died in defense of the empire.) Indian nationalists loyally supported the British government…

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