history

Politics in Past Tense

S Prasannarajan

The window Spike Lee opens in Da 5 Bloods gives America a vantage point to view the burning streets from a culturally correct angle

They, too, sang America

Sudeep Paul

Four centuries of the African-American journey

Istanbul: Lost in Shifting Shadows

Keerthik Sasidharan

A city caught between the heretical seductions of modernity and the atavistic lures of medievalism

A Time for Ecosophy

Aseem Shrivastava

The Corona Condition is a last gentle warning from the gods

When History Stands Still

TCA Raghavan

Consolations from the trauma-ridden past of India

Questions of Belonging

Rajshree Chandra

The Deoliwallahs reminds us that the journey from citizen to foreigner is a short one

Religious War Inc

Siddharth Singh

The life of an extraordinary jihadist and where it fits in the sweep of history

America was the New Jerusalem. It is still the Promised Land. That is not a complete picture but it is how the America we know began. From Henry James’ wilderness with ‘nothing’ in it, the US quickly grew to lead the world, economically, militarily and intellectually. A big country, a lot of things have happened in its brief timeline, and everything has mattered. Below is a list of 10 books, fiction and non-fiction, that span most of the country’s history as the ‘United’ States of America and explain how it was made—and continues to be remade