This paper examines two approaches I argue most successfully transformed the conventional book and in doing so, challenged Walter Benjamin’s paradigm for art in the “age of mechanical reproduction.” These includes the neo-primitivist approach, in which artists looked to a pre-Gutenberg era for inspiration, and the ferroconcrete approach which…[Read more]

This paper complicates the interpretation of the mass spectacle the Storming of the Winter Palace as Bolshevik propaganda by uncovering the many hilarious ways The Storming failed as classical propaganda.

This is a biographical sketch that marshals previously unexamined primary sources to tell the story of Henry Dana, member of the Boston elite and grandson of both Richard Dana and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Despite his wealth, privilege, and lineage, Dana stuck up for unpopular causes throughout his life including the defense of Sacco and…[Read more]

The origin and evolution of the Ukrainian identity is a widely-discussed topic with a rich and contentious historiography. Many scholars have revisited this topic in the aftermath of the 2013-2014 Euromaidan events and subsequent conflict with Russia in Ukraine’s Donbass. These events have raised new questions about Ukraine’s historical rel…[Read more]