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

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Written by Sam Haselby

Colourised photo of an elderly Black man with a stern expression, wearing a blue jacket, red cravat and a blue headscarf, holding a cane.

essayHistory

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

The US flag at half-mast on a clear day, symbolising mourning or respect for a significant event or person.

ideaNations and empires

These should be the end times for American patriotism

Sam Haselby

A rural landscape at dusk or dawn with a small illuminated house, a tree, an old tractor, and a car in an open field.

essayHistory

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

Three people draped in German flags standing in a town square during a gathering, with a rainbow in the cloudy sky.

essayAnthropology

Dreams of the far Right

Young Europeans join far-Right movements less out of grievance than out of a profound yearning to believe and belong

Agnieszka Pasieka

Sepia-toned photo of a man addressing a crowd of strikers outside a brick building wearing early 20th-century attire.

essayPolitics and government

Our unfinished republics

Economic republicanism shows us how to achieve authentic freedom: citizens require economic as well as political power

Sean Irving

A vibrant street scene with decorated vehicles, colourful flags and banners in front of a large urban building.

essayThinkers and theories

The tragedy of Trần Đức Thảo

How the persecuted Vietnamese philosopher became one of the first theorists of the divide between colonised and coloniser

Rory O’Sullivan

A herd of elephants walking through a dusty landscape with a blurred background of trees and bushes.

essayBiology

Desert survivors

Elephant families are matriarchal, inclusive and caring. But when environmental scarcity hits, everything changes

Caitlin O’Connell-Rodwell

Black and white photo of a line of people marching on a city street holding signs protesting against the draft for the Vietnam War.

essayWar and peace

Not in our name

The gravest of all decisions, to go to war, happens without the consent of the people. This is a great flaw in democracy

Vincenza Falletti

Sepia-toned photo of people labouring on a plantation with baskets and tools, set against a backdrop of hills and buildings.

essayGlobal history

The deepest South

Slavery in Latin America, on a huge scale, was different from that in the United States. Why don’t we know this history?

Ana Lucia Araujo

A vast open-pit coal mine with excavation machinery surrounded by green hills.

essayEnvironmental history

Are you Confusedocene?

As a scientific concept the Anthropocene is dead. But it’s such a helpful idea to think with, should we use it anyway?

Ville Lähde

Medieval illustration of a map, depicting ornate ships, islands and sea creatures on a stylised ocean.

essayGlobal history

The world without hegemony

As Pax Americana ends, a multipolar order is emerging. The history of Southeast Asia holds lessons for what’s to come

Manjeet S Pardesi & Amitav Acharya

Photo of a construction site with wooden fence, trees and stones inscribed with Hindi text in the foreground.

essayPolitics and government

Dreams of a Maoist India

India’s Maoist guerillas have just surrendered, after decades of waging war on the government from their forest bases

Rahul Pandita

Abstract painting with a vertical orange stripe on a dark red background.

essayArt

Art must act

Throughout decades of writing, Harold Rosenberg exhorted artists to resist cliché and conformity and instead take action

Blake Smith

An automotive factory interior with a car body on an overhead conveyor, surrounded by industrial machinery.

essayEconomic history

Towards good globalisation

How do some countries manage to channel foreign capital into economic development while others are just exploited by it?

Guilherme Klein Martins

Graphic with a vertical split between a red and brown background, with a brown circle at the centre of each half.

essayNeuroscience

Brain man

How can you have a picture of the world when your brain is locked up in your skull? Neuroscientist Dale Purves has clues

Asif Ghazanfar