John Wojcik pays tribute to a black US activist who spent six decades at the forefront of struggles for voting rights, economic justice and peace – reshaping US politics and inspiring movements worldwide
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I will survive
Working out the survival rates of medieval manuscripts needed surprise input from those studying animal diversity – and reminds us on the left to make sure we keep our own story safe, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and JOEL HELLEWELL
In the fifth and final part of a series of articles, Storming the Heavens author JENNY CLEGG explains how the Communist Party of China’s approach demonstrates how Marxism, rooted in concrete conditions and mass participation, can shape history
In times of genocide, art is not a refuge from politics but a weapon against injustice, says ROGER McKENZIE, highlighting three of his own favourite political truth-tellers
As members elect their first leadership, a deeper battle is unfolding over what democracy should mean in practice, says CASSI BELLINGHAM
The language of humiliation is a step towards a second civil war, argues RAMZY BAROUD
ANDREW MURRAY says switching the prime minister on and off again is no substitute for new political approach we need
HISTORIANS must work with limited information about the past.
First, what is set down is a biased subset to begin with. The experiences of the working class in England before the Industrial Revolution, for example, are much harder to reconstruct than the royal court.
Second, even written records can be lost, crumble away in attics, or be burned in library fires. So the evidence that does survive today from the past is a proportion of what once existed. But what is that proportion?
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TOM GALLAHUE argues that asking what role Irish diaspora educators can play in shaping Irish unity is to ask a deeper question about democracy itself
The selection, analysis and interpretation of historical ‘facts’ always takes place within a paradigm, a model of how the world works. That’s why history is always a battleground, declares the Marx Memorial Library
Neutrinos are so abundant that 400 trillion pass through your body every second. ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT explain how scientists are seeking to know more about them
LOUISE BOURDUA introduces the emotional and narrative religious art of 14th-century Siena that broke with Byzantine formalism and laid the foundations for the Renaissance