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Fifteen Eighty Four

Academic perspectives from Cambridge University Press

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Nationalism, Charisma, Narcissism

In the classic film Casablanca, the Frenchwoman Yvonne, one of the regulars of Rick’s Café, joins the other refugees assembled there to sing the Marseillaise, boldly defying the Nazi officers present....

Joep Leerssen | 29 Jan 2026

Challenging the Caliphate: Wahhabism and Mahdism in the Late Ottoman Empire

Ottoman officials praying at Daraa Station. Source: Istanbul University, Rare Books Library, Sultan Abdülhamid II Photo Albums. NEKYA 90521/1. In 1886, the second edition of the yearbook of...

Ömer Koçyiğit | 28 Jan 2026

Theosis and Moral Transformation

The epistle of 2 Peter is not merely a polemic against false teachers; it is founded upon a compelling theological vision of life with God. In my commentary on 2 Peter, I argue that the letter’s ethical...

A. Chadwick Thornhill | 26 Jan 2026

Reconsidering 2 Peter as a Letter-Testament

One of the outcomes of my examination of 2 Peter is challenging the widely held scholarly designation of this letter as a “testament.” This genre classification has been profoundly influential, particularly...

A. Chadwick Thornhill | 26 Jan 2026

American Exceptionalism, Comparative Miscarriages of Justice and JJ Velazquez

Jon-Adrian (JJ) Velazquez has recently sued New York City and its police for $100 million stemming from his wrongful murder conviction. Velazquez is best known for his role in the Oscar nominated...

Kent Roach | 23 Jan 2026

From Crisis to Action: Q&A reflections from Abena Takyiwaa Asamoah-Okyere

1. What makes the book particularly timely and urgent in today’s global climate conversation? Why is now a critical moment to publish this book? This book re-emphasises the fact that the climate...

Abena Takyiwaa Asamoah-Okyere | 21 Jan 2026

Corporations as Political and Governing Actors in the Current Era

For much of the past decade, corporations occupied a very visible place in public life. They spoke after Charlottesville and January 6, opposed the withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, intervened in immigration...

Matteo Gatti | 20 Jan 2026

Seeing Corruption in Context: From Empire to Global Governance

Corruption is often treated as an obvious problem with an obvious explanation. Public officials, driven by self-interest, abuse their positions; to stop this behavior, we need better incentives, stricter...

Marco Garrido, Marina Zaloznaya, Nicholas Hoover Wilson | 16 Jan 2026

The Invisible Hand of Public Relations

In 2019, Paul Manafort was sentenced to 73 months in jail for failing to register as with the United States Justice Department an agent of pro-Russian Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovych. The story became...

Andrew Johnstone | 14 Jan 2026

What Is Nostalgi Good For?: Choosing a Homeland in the British and Irish Modernist Epic

Nostalgia has become a defining emotion of twenty-first-century Western culture. From endless film franchise reboots, to the Eras Tour, to the 1980s world of Stranger Things, our media seems perpetually...

Sarah Coogan | 14 Jan 2026

Shakespeare and the Vibrating Throat of Flesh

A lot of ethical programs are predicated on ideas of sameness and reciprocity. These programs urge us to imagine other people as similar to ourselves and to treat them accordingly. This is the essence...

Kent Lehnhof | 14 Jan 2026

The Early History of Heresy

What makes someone a heretic? In the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church, heresy is ‘the obstinate denial or obstinate doubt after the reception of baptism of some truth which is to be believed by...

Richard Flower | 14 Jan 2026