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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Petra Herrera Wanted To Be a General

I’ve continued to stumble across stories of women warriors in the year since I turned in the manuscript (1) for Women Warriors. Sometimes people walk up to me after a book event and ask “Have you heard about [fill in the blank]?“ (2) It’s humbling how often the answer is no. The other question people…

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From the Archives: The Weeping Widow

The world’s first female prime minister, Sirimavo Bandaranaike of what was then Ceylon, is the archetypical example of what political scientists sometimes refer to as the “widow’s walk to power,” in which a woman steps into a position of political power after the often-violent death of her husband.The assumption is such women will carry on…

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