When historian Romila Thapar first reviewed student textbooks in her native India, she was surprised. “I was appalled by the quality of the information that was being conveyed in these books,” she wrote in a 2009 journal article recalling the experience. Particularly, she was struck by “an adherence to outdated ideas and generally colonial views …
As a Kluge Fellow at the Library of Congress, historian Joseph Genetin-Pilawa is researching his forthcoming book “The Indians’ Capital City: ‘Secret’ Native Histories of Washington, D.C.” He sat down with Jason Steinhauer to discuss the facts, myths, and contradictions of Native presence in the nation’s capital. The Chesapeake has a rich indigenous history that …
In December, NASA announced that its Mars Curiosity rover measured a tenfold spike in methane in the martian atmosphere around it and detected other organic molecules in a rock-powder sample collected by the robotic laboratory’s drill. Then last week, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft provided scientists clear evidence that Saturn’s moon Enceladus exhibits signs of present-day hydrothermal …
As a Kluge Fellow at the Library of Congress, historian Julia Young is currently researching a new book on Mexican immigration to the U.S. during the 1920s. She sat down with Jason Steinhauer to discuss the history of this migration and the similarities and differences to immigration today. Hi, Julia. By way of background, could …
The following is a guest post by Nancy Lovas, Library Technician at The John W. Kluge Center. For the past six months, I’ve been able to tell people that I work in The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. This statement is invariably followed by two questions: “What is the Kluge Center?” …
Members of the Library of Congress Scholars Council are appointed by the Librarian of Congress to advise on matters related to scholarship and the Library, with special attention to the Kluge Center and the Kluge Prize. The Council includes distinguished scholars, writers, researchers, and scientists. “Insights” will feature some of the work of this highly-accomplished …