In only a few decades during the seventeenth century, the Spanish American colonial city of Potosí, in modern-day Bolivia, grew from a small settlement to a metropolis of almost 200,000. With twice the total population of all of Britain's North American colonies, Potosí became one of the largest cities in the Americas despite being at an elevation of over 13,000 feet.| Not Even Past
Camilla Ordorica reviews Susie S. Porter's From Angel to Office Worker, which explores the material conditions of working women between 1890 and 1950 and the consequent formation of middle-class female identity in Mexico City| Not Even Past
What would Mexico City—or Tenochtitan as it was known to its indigenous population—have looked like to ten year old Doña Luisa Estrada, when she arrived with her parents in 1524, three years after it fell to Spain?| Not Even Past
We need new men, normal children, strong workers, and loyal soldiers . . . , and much of this can be achieved by cultivating Mexican women, showing them horizons that they have not contemplated. -Dr. Carmen Alarcón, 1942[1] In 1922, socialist feminists such as Elvia Carrillo Puerto and Esperanza Velázquez Bringas organized eugenic campaigns promoting […]| Not Even Past
Daniela Sánchez reviews Surgery and Salvation. The Roots of Reproductive Injustice in Mexico 1770-1940 (2025) by Elizabeth O'Brien.| Not Even Past
When British forces surrendered at Yorktown in 1781, few would have imagined that the decisive blow had been financed not from Paris or Philadelphia, but from Havana. Behind this unexpected twist stood Francisco de Saavedra, a Spanish official whose name is absent from most American textbooks but whose actions helped change the course of the […] The post The Forgotten Spanish-Cuban Contribution to American Independence: Francisco de Saavedra and the Silver of Havana appeared first on Not Ev...| Not Even Past
Martin Nesvig’s newest book, The Women Who Threw Corn, offers a novel approach to the cultural view and development of sorcery and magical practices in sixteenth-century Mexico, as seen through the lens of acculturation, or cultural assimilation between groups. This is the first book in an upcoming two-part series called Xolotl Rite, and whereas this book highlights women, […] The post Review of The Women Who Threw Corn: Witchcraft and Inquisition in Sixteenth-Century Mexico (2025) app...| Not Even Past
In September 1935, Jimmie Lee Robinson and fourteen other Black Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers stationed at Palo Duro State Park in the Texas Panhandle wrote to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to protest their treatment in the CCC camp. “We work some time six days in a week,” they said, “and have to go to […] The post Constructing a Canyon: Black CCC Workers and the Making of Palo Duro appeared first on Not Even Past.| Not Even Past
Scholars from the Department of History at the University of Texas at Austin review Jeremi Suri's new book, Civil War by Other Means.| Not Even Past
Review of Luca Falciola's book which presents how lawyers were indispensable to the progressive social movements of the 1960s and 1970s.| Not Even Past
Sarah Porter reviews Brittany Friedman's 2025 book Carceral Apartheid: How Lies and White Supremacists Run Our Prisons.| Not Even Past
Sarah Porter writes about the life and legacy of Walter Collins, a political prisoner whose legal cases captured national attention and inspired widespread protest during the 1960s and 1970s.| Not Even Past
Sarah Porter reviews The Hard Work of Hope: a Memoir by Michael Ansara, published in 2025.| Not Even Past
In 1849, sixty-five “ladies of Fayette County” Tennessee wanted their State legislature to know that a central dimension of patriarchy was failing. In a collective petition, they highlighted the ways that this failure was unfolding and how it impacted the lives of Tennessee women, particularly those who were married or who were soon to be […]| Not Even Past
by Mary Neuburger In 1893 Aleko Konstantinov, one of Bulgaria’s most well known literary figures, traveled to the Chicago World’s Fair. Once in Chicago, Aleko—as he is remembered by Bulgarians—observed this now-famous spectacle along with the peculiarities of the “New World” itself. The Chicago fair was a formidable vision of prosperity and progress, by […]| Not Even Past
NEP has published numerous articles and book reviews on Slavery and Race in Colonial Latin America. What hierarchies conditioned the relations between Africans, Europeans, and native groups? How did these socio-racial systems work on the day to day of life in Colonial Latin America? And, how did racially discriminated groups resist? These are some of the key questions addressed in the articles below.| Not Even Past
by Tiana Wilson As we approach the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. on the 50th anniversary of his death, April 4, 1968, it is crucial to appreciate King entirely. Beyond his push for nonviolent direct action and racial integration, we should recognize his expansive human rights activism, anti-war advocacy, and ground-breaking thinking. […]| Not Even Past
In this episode, Jeremi and Zachary Suri are joined by Professor Alan McPherson, an expert on US foreign relations who introduces his new book ‘The Breach: Iran-Contra and the Assault on American Democracy.’ Together, they discuss how this Iran-Contra scandal altered public trust in the American government and set troubling precedents for future administrations. Zachary […]| Not Even Past
In this page, we bring together the full collection of NEP’s Archive Chronicles! Curated by Associate Editor Camila Ordorica, this series explores archives as affective and historical spaces in their own right, while offering insights into the process of conducting archival work. Each installment provides a unique perspective on the treasures and challenges researchers encounter […] The post NEP’s Archive Chronicles – Full Series appeared first on Not Even Past.| Not Even Past
Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of political imprisonment, torture, threats of r*pe, and human rights abuses. Viewer discretion is advised. Jeremi and Zachary speak with Kurdish journalist Nedim Türfent, who spent over 2,400 days in a Turkish prison after releasing footage of state forces mistreating Kurdish workers. He was denied a fair trial, convicted […] The post This is Democracy – Free Speech and Repression in Turkey appeared first on Not Even Past.| Not Even Past
This week, the discussion delves into the complex and deeply rooted suffering in the Middle East, focusing on the history of conflict, memory, trauma, and grief between Israelis and Palestinians. Jeremi and Zachary Suri are joined by acclaimed author Lawrence Wright, who has spent decades studying and documenting the region. Wright discusses his latest novel, […] The post This is Democracy – Israel-Palestine appeared first on Not Even Past.| Not Even Past
Jeremi and Zachary have a conversation with Dr. Mark Pomar on the historical impact of Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and Radio Liberty’s critical role of radio communications during the Cold War, and the challenges they face today including the recent threats to their operation. Zachary sets the scene with his poem, “Radio Liberty”. […] The post This is Democracy – Broadcasting Democracy appeared first on Not Even Past.| Not Even Past
By Tiana Wilson After reading this book in three different graduate seminar courses, I can confidently argue that Marisa Fuentes’ Dispossessed Lives: Enslaved Women, Violence, and the Archive is one of the most important texts of our time, and a must read for anyone interested in overcoming the limitations of archival research. For many scholars […]| Not Even Past
In the first couple pages, Cohen introduces his readers to his compelling protagonist, Samuel Zemurray, a poor Jewish immigrant to the United States who later came to embody the American Dream.| Not Even Past
By Marcus Oliver Golding The role of the United States during the Cold War is one often marked by tragedy, repression and the support for authoritarian regimes throughout the western hemisphere. That perception is shared throughout Latin America, which makes one wonder if there are cases in which U.S. foreign policy actually helped Latin Americans […]| Not Even Past
On Monday, July 5, 2021, the high court in Tegucigalpa, Honduras convicted Roberto David Castillo, former head of the Desarrollos Energéticos dam company, for the murder of Berta Cáceres. The court ruled that Castillo coordinated, planned, and financed the assassination of Cáceres. Speaking in Honduras’ Río Blanco in 2013, Berta Cáceres rallied a sea of […]| Not Even Past
In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Cuba was profoundly shaped by its proximity to and multi-layered relationship with Haiti, or Saint-Domingue as it was called before the 1803 Haitian Revolution. In the decades leading up to Saint-Domingue’s 1791 slave revolt, Cuban planters looked with envy on the booming sugar economy of their neighbor […]| Not Even Past
by Sheena Cox In March 2020, an art dealer in New York emailed a Vietnamese art curator named An Nguyen and revoked his participation in an upcoming event. A “high level of anxiety” surrounding COVID-19, and concerns that Asians carried the virus might discourage audience attendance, she explained. When reports of the Coronavirus first hit […]| Not Even Past
Objects not only inform us about the time and place when they were made, but often have subsequent biographies of use that shed light on later historical developments.| Not Even Past
In the last decade, the history of Muslims in America has come into its own and A History of Islam in America provides one of the most comprehensive and even-handed treatments of the subject. Many previous studies breezily pit “Islam” against the “West.”| Not Even Past
Savannah is a prime location for understanding the centrality of slavery and race to the national and world economy, and the importance of the city to southern landscapes and the southern economy.| Not Even Past
By Jacqueline Jones The news headlines today tell an alarming if familiar story—of workers losing their jobs to machines, of the diminished power of labor unions, rising rates of economic inequality, and the inadequacy of the two-party system to address these issues in any meaningful way. The internet and other new electronic technologies might suggest […]| Not Even Past
By Alina Scott The study of gender continues to evolve and push the discipline of history forward. Over the years, Not Even Past has published a wide range of pieces on the topic. The articles, podcasts, book reviews, and teaching materials span the globe. This collection features articles and books about gender, the way it […]| Not Even Past
2020 is a significant moment in the history of the United States. As some locations begin the process of opening up in the midst of the Covid19 pandemic, the country is now collectively mourning and joining in protests against police brutality in the wake of the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minnesota […]| Not Even Past
