Beginning in the 1850s, the United States took its first, incautious steps toward developing an overseas empire in the Pacific. In the end, the empire would help defeat Japan during World War II. The bloodiest and most infamous battles of the Pacific War were fought on possessions gained by American imperialists. The first American shots of the war were fired at Pearl Harbor; the first major invasion of American territory happened in the Philippines; the first major U.S. victory occurred at Midway; and Samoa was a linchpin in the allied communication line, running from Midway to Fiji to contin ..read more

A century ago, every democratic regime was in Western Europe or in a country settled by Western Europeans. The picture is now more varied. Non-Western countries such as India and Jamaica have been democracies for more than half a century, despite lacking many factors often cited as prerequisites for democracy. But stable democratic experiences are exceptional. In countries such as Uganda and Malaysia, democratic competition at independence gave way shortly afterwards to military coups or autocratic consolidation by the incumbent. Many other countries, such as Angola, Kuwait, and Niger, were au ..read more

As I write this, England has had the wettest twelve months since 1871 (although it has seemingly been drier in Scotland, where I live – even if it does not necessarily feel that way). Weather stories, including those dealing with extreme weather, are increasingly a feature of our news cycles, as part of the ever more visible processes of climate change we face today. Concern about the weather is of course not a new phenomenon, and societies over time have sought out various different technologies to ameliorate its harmful effects. A couple of years ago I received a little  jolt when one o ..read more

It’s not often that people nowadays invoke an ancient Greek philosophical concept but – without knowing that this is what they’re doing – this is precisely what happens, in certain parts of Britain, when people criticise someone else’s lack of common sense. In Yorkshire, in particular, you’ll still often hear someone voice this kind of criticism by saying, “Ee lad” – or lass, as the case may be – “have a bit of nous.” This use of the term nous to mean “common sense” does pick up one aspect of what ancient philosophers meant when they used this word, but this was not the main thing that they ha ..read more

Imagine if the government ranked banks according to their investments in the oil and gas industries or rated and labelled food and clothing companies based on their poor carbon footprint. Would you react to this type of “naming and shaming” by avoiding companies that contribute to global warming? Surveys suggest yes. This is the concept of “regulatory shaming.” It involves publishing adverse regulatory information about corporate activities to influence their behaviour. The underlying premise is that stakeholders––ranging from consumers, investors, employees, and the public at large––can have ..read more

Introduction from Professor P. Cane and Dr H. Kumarasingham, Editors of The Cambridge Constitutional History of the United Kingdom On 6 March 2024, The Cambridge Constitutional History of the United Kingdom was launched in the House of Lords. This is the first publication of its kind and the culmination of over 7 years of work, consisting of 2 volumes, 42 chapters, 40 authors and over 1000 pages. The multi-disciplinary intellectual contribution and expansive range on offer are what makes these volumes a distinctive and important resource to comprehend not just the United Kingdom’s constitution ..read more

When going to my hospital work, I pass a well-kept peaceful and quite large grass area surrounded by a fence. A memory stone declares that this is a mass grave of cholera victims from the 1850s. As a researcher in fluid balance, I sometimes think about how little doctors knew about this topic 175 years ago. Sadly, these deaths were preventable. Moreover, a religious detail did add to the tragedy. In those days, the hospital area was situated outside the city, which means that the victims were not buried in “sacred soil” close to the church. For good, times have changed. Today we know a lot mo ..read more

I have described writing my forthcoming book as something I needed to do, almost like an itch that needed to be scratched.   But now that it is finished, I have very mixed feelings about its imminent publication.  The bravery and the enthusiasm project have long since evaporated and replaced by a combination of nerves and reticence.  There are the usual reasons for this.  The book is a long time with me, a big investment of time, so like any author I am keen that it lands well.  And of course it isn’t just the time I have spent writing. I have spent a career study ..read more

Polls are already big news – and they’ll only get bigger as we doom scroll our way through another appalling election cycle.  Is Trump really up in Michigan? Is Biden really hemorrhaging support among young people? For all the attention we pay to polls, it is crazy how little we actually know about how they work.  Back in the day we knew a lot: if you get answers from a random sample of the population, you’ll get unbiased estimates that get more accurate as the sample size goes up.  But now?  The New York Times may contact a random sample, but only 1 in 100 answer.  A ..read more

William Faulkner at his home in Oxford, Mississippi, ca. 1932 In 2016, a handmade booklet of drawings and poems turned up on an episode of Antiques Roadshow from Little Rock, Arkansas. The man who owned the piece described it as “a book of poems by William Faulkner,” and appraiser Ian Ehling, now Director of Fine Books and Manuscripts for Bonhams New York, confirmed its authenticity. The owner explained that it was a gift from Faulkner to a family friend who died in the 1980s and had briefly dated the author around 1920. Indeed, Faulkner during this time made several such books in the art nouv ..read more