Sam Haselby
Senior Editor, Aeon+Psyche
Sam is a historian of early America with a particular interest in religion and politics. He was a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows and has been a faculty member at the American University of Beirut, the American University in Cairo and at Columbia University in New York City. He was a Senior Executive Producer at Al Jazeera America and is the author of The Origins of American Religious Nationalism (paperback, 2016). @samhaselby
Written by Sam Haselby
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History
Muslims of early America
Muslims came to America more than a century before Protestants, and in great numbers. How was their history forgotten?
Sam Haselby
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Nations and empires
These should be the end times for American patriotism
Sam Haselby
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History
American secular
The founding moment of the United States brought a society newly freed from religion. What went wrong?
Sam Haselby
Edited by Sam Haselby
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Global history
Reconstructed hemisphere
In the 19th century, civil wars tore apart the US, Mexico and Argentina. Then came democracy’s fight against reaction
Evan C Rothera
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Global history
The Asian world order
Before modern Europe existed there was a grand, interconnected political world, rich in scientific and artistic exchange
Ayşe Zarakol
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History of science
The missing conversation
To the detriment of the public, scientists and historians don’t engage with one another. They must begin a new dialogue
Lorraine Daston & Peter Harrison
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Religion
Indomitable Sufis
Once a centre of Afghan culture, Sufism seems to have disappeared in the maelstrom of war and upheaval. But still it survives
Annika Schmeding
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Stories and literature
Saved by Infinite Jest
Bereft and suicidal, I lay on my sofa. Only David Foster Wallace’s novel kept me tethered to life, and still does
Mala Chatterjee
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History of technology
A silken web
From its mythic beginnings in a Chinese garden, the story of silk is a window into how weaving has shaped human history
Peter Frankopan, Marie-Louise Nosch & Feng Zhao
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History of science
The rights of the dead
From the Irish Giant to the Ancient One, is it ever ethical for scientists and museums to study bodies without permission?
Anita Guerrini
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Economics
Going cashless
It’s not in the interests of the ordinary person but it’s not a conspiracy either. A cashless society is a system run amok
Brett Scott
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Metaphysics
Both one and yet distinct
Being a twin (as our author knows) cracks open our ideas of the perfectly bounded self and might liberate us all
Helena de Bres
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Religion
Secularism in Iran
Postcolonial intellectuals and Iran’s rulers agree that secularism is just Western imperialism in disguise. They are wrong
Patrick Hassan & Hossein Dabbagh
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Education
The exam that broke society
Keju, China’s incredibly difficult civil service test, strengthened the state at the cost of freedom and creativity
Yasheng Huang
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Religion
Praying in shoes
The Sunni movement of Salafism was born at the beginning of the 20th century, with the goal of modelling life on the 7th
Aaron Rock-Singer