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Ideas

Rethinking our relationship with the past

A new book by Tobias Becker argues that it’s time to stop slinging the word "nostalgia" as a sloppy, all-purpose insult against perceived enemies of progress.

Ideas

On the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, a look back at Boston’s forgotten rap history

Boston’s overlooked and underappreciated Black music scene and how it affected rap over the years.

Ideas

We’re drowning in historical fiction

Books about the past get most of the prestige. That’s boxing writers in — and some more so than others.

Ideas

9/11, apartheid, and other metaphors that make people misunderstand Israel and Palestine

Terms commonly used to describe this conflict reflect outsiders’ preoccupations instead of astute political judgments.

Ideas

War is a cost of holding on to history too tightly

We often presume that conflict begins over resources or economic interests. But the explanation can be more visceral.

Columns

I used to defend Columbus as ‘magnificent.’ I don’t anymore.

Reading what his contemporaries wrote about him opened my eyes.

Ideas

The things they could not carry

More than 100,000 Armenians fled Nagorno-Karabakh last month. For Armenians there and in the diaspora, it was the latest reminder of all that has been left behind.