We take a detour to follow the path of American nudists (intellectually). From the late 19th century to the prudish post-war years, through to the let-loose sexual revolution, historian Sarah Schrank reveals all, in her book “Free and Natural: Nudity and the American Cult of the Body”

The putative omnipotence of Vladimir Putin has led many to view Russia as a uniquely autocratic country. Timothy M. Frye argues that Russia is neither completely unique, nor primordially prone to strongman leadership – the explanations are far more complex

A historian’s hunch led Nancy MacLean to the archives of James McGill Buchanan, the Nobel Prize-winning economist who also incidentally became the patron saint of the Koch brothers. Her book sparked a controversy as deep as her subjects

Polish-Canadian historian, Prof. Jan Grabowski, discusses Jewish-Polish relations during the Nazi occupation, as well as the politics of memory in contemporary Poland and how he has been personally affected by it

David N Myers and Benjamin Ravid discuss the life and work of Simon Rawidowicz, a seminal, albeit somewhat forgotten, 20th-century Jewish intellectual, upon the publication of an edited volume of his selected writings

Why would citizens vote freely for political leaders plotting or even promising to attack their democracy? Why do certain policies, parties or people take priority over democratic norms at the ballot box? And can democracy count on voters to save it?

Since when do xenophobic nationalist political actors in Europe devote themselves to gender equality, protection of women and human rights? When it advances their aim of excluding non-white migrants from the nation

Facebook may not be the source of all evils – but at least many of them. Siva Vaidhyanathan argues that while Facebook has some charms, it holds special responsibility for major social and political ills today

Prof. Daniella Talmon-Heller discusses how and why practices of pilgrimage and temporal rituals evolved in the first few centuries of Islam’s existence

How did America’s political culture move from civil disagreement to visceral rage? Noam Gidron argues that intense, emotional partisanship is distinct from routine ideological differences, and possibly more dangerous. And America isn’t the only country torn apart by politics.