Archive of History

In the first part of the series Unlearning Decisive Moments of Photography, Ariella Azoulay urges us to unlearn the knowledge that calls upon us to account for photography as having its own origins, histories, practices, or futures, and to explore it as part of the imperial world that we operate in. 

The main reason to look back at the history of the New Communist Movement is to glean any lessons that can be useful for rebuilding a revolutionary left under today’s dramatically changed conditions.

In this compact, printable history, Felice Batlan traces the development of US immigration restrictions from the mid-nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century.

"We have to come back to the straightforward explanation that this is a society which is structured by racial oppression and has been for its entire history."

Researcher and activist Pascal Bianchini describes the lasting effects of the 1960s–70s student movement in Senegal and the condition of the Senegalese left today. 

Max Elbaum wrote Revolution in the Air in 2001 to reclaim the lessons of the New Communist Movement for militants who, like their early sixties’ predecessors, became activists when the radical left was fragmented and weak. How relevant is this history and the lessons he draws for us now, in this new period of left upsurge?

“I feel sorry for nothing," Valerie Solanas told reporters after shooting Warhol. “Read my manifesto and it will tell you what I am."