Silent films seemed doomed. They're the larval stage of the media that now has near total purchase on our eyes and brains. Silents, with their uneven film speeds, their accidental jump cuts, their distressed coquettes, over-pronounced moustache twirls and histrionic intertitles, are a kind of shorthand for
It's giving 'facile generalization' to say that Americans have a funny relationship with authority. Declarations of independence, Backing the Blue, Don't Tread On Me, Amendments 1 and 2, everything that's happened since 2016… We – if such a "we" even exists,
We would know much less about the 1921 Tulsa Massacre without the pioneering research of Scott Ellsworth. The Tulsa native's Death in a Promised Land is widely considered to be the definitive account of that terrible incident. Shockingly – or perhaps not shockingly at all – the book was only
From the day of its inception to the day of its partial absorption and invasion by Nazi Germany, there was a 20-year moment when Czechoslovakia seemed to sit atop of the world: Kafka, robots, a thriving culture of art, music, film, architecture and design, and a truly impressive industrial
Previous Engagement will feature writing, interviews, videos and images that probe history and our study of it. Like most things, it will change over time.
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