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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

See Sam Haselby’s profile on Psyche

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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.

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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

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

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Nations and empires

These should be the end times for American patriotism

Sam Haselby

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

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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

A street with an American flag a mural of a vintage town scene and a black pickup truck passing by.

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Politics and government

The spectre of insecurity

Liberals have forgotten that in order for our lives not to be nasty, brutish and short, we need stability. Enter Hobbes

Jennifer M Morton

Black and white photo of a group of people standing outdoors on a slope by a pond with trees and bushes in the background.

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Religion

The script creator

Pau Cin Hau dreamt of an alphabet for a language that had never been written down. So began the religion of Laipianism

Bikash K Bhattacharya

A Pacific National train engine in yellow and blue with “Make time to ask R U OK?” message on its side.

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Mental health

Constant confession

Mental health campaigns place huge trust in people’s ability to act as therapists. But when should professionals step in?

Aaron Neiman

Photo of people in a forest, some kneeling and examining plants, others standing and walking, all surrounded by lush greenery.

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Food and drink

The joy of foraging

Offering an escape from industrial foods, foraging nourishes the soul and body, but it needs democratic access to the land

Nikita Sud

Painting of a woman with a sword defending a fort from attackers; other figures fight with swords and wooden poles and carry stones.

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Race and ethnicity

The forging of countries

Two distinct and conflicting forms of nationalism – civic and ethnic – helped create the nation-states of Europe

Luka Ivan Jukić

Painting of a rural street on a dark night featuring a two-storey white farmhouse, a red barn, powerlines, and a bright light in the centre.

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Sleep and dreams

Spinning the night self

After years of insomnia, I threw off the effort to sleep and embraced the peculiar openness I found in the darkest hours

Annabel Abbs

Painting of two men sitting in a barn, one on a bench and the other on a chair, with a horse and pumpkins in the background.

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History of ideas

Philosophy of the people

How two amateur schools pulled a generation of thinkers from the workers and teachers of the 19th-century American Midwest

Joseph M Keegin

Photo of a light beige woven fabric with black and red borders on the sides, frayed edges at the bottom, and a black background.

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Political philosophy

Citizens and spinning wheels

For Indians to be truly free, Gandhi argued they must take up traditional crafts. Was it a quixotic hope or inspired solution?

Benjamin Studebaker

Black-and-white photo of a man in a suit and hat grabbing another man by his collar in front of a bar with bottles.

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Political philosophy

C L R James and America

The brilliant Trinidadian thinker is remembered as an admirer of the US but he also warned of its dark political future

Harvey Neptune

A suburban street with mountains in the background, featuring a girl on a bike, parked cars, and old furniture on the sidewalk in front of a house.

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Progress and modernity

The great wealth wave

The tide has turned – evidence shows ordinary citizens in the Western world are now richer and more equal than ever before

Daniel Waldenström

Photochrom image of a narrow street lined with Middle-Eastern buildings; people are walking down the middle of the street and some are holding umbrellas.

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Nations and empires

The paradoxes of Mikha’il Mishaqa

He was a Catholic, then a rationalist, then a Protestant. Most of all, he exemplified the rise of Arab-Ottoman modernity

Peter Hill

Newborn baby being held by a person wearing blue gloves, with another masked individual looking at the baby in a medical setting.

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Human reproduction

Baby talk

When babies are born, they cry in the accent of their mother tongue: how does language begin in the womb?

Darshana Narayanan