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Fifteen Eighty Four

Academic perspectives from Cambridge University Press

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Why Read Wollstonecraft Today?

I’ve written about Wollstonecraft a lot, in the last fifteen years: books, articles, edited volumes. I started writing about her the minute I found out about her. And I found out about her because a...

Sandrine Bergès | 6 May 2026

Sellars Today: How the Universe Discovered Itself

As a pre-teen, I was fascinated with how cosmological and biological evolution led to humanity. Every new book checked out from the library led me to rewrite increasingly long, detailed lists of every...

Carl B. Sachs | 6 May 2026

Making Progress on the Mystery of Existence

The question of why there is something rather than nothing is supposed to be one of those “big” timeless topics in philosophy. And yet surprisingly few full-length books are published on the topic....

Andrew Brenner | 6 May 2026

States under Stress

For several decades ‘failed‘ or ‘fragile’ states and their ‘collapse’ have concerned – if not obsessed – governments, intergovernmental organizations, internationally active NGOs,...

Eberhard Kienle | 4 May 2026

Vulnerability and Relational Equality

Many people these days talk about vulnerability:  children, the elderly, and those who are poor are all described as vulnerable. During the pandemic, protecting the vulnerable became the guiding...

Christine Straehle, Costanza Porro | 30 Apr 2026

How the U.S. Constitution Can End Extreme Partisanship

American politics is characterized by extreme partisanship and government stalemate.  The two dominant political parties marshal reliably partisan interest groups with the objective of controlling both...

James L. Huffman | 30 Apr 2026

Ballad Business: Selling Early Modern Theatre

A trip to the theatre, these days, often involves additional purchase. Theatre merchandise (‘merch’) is sold in a related shop or kiosk, so that attending a performance might involve also buying a...

Tiffany Stern | 28 Apr 2026

Why “More Doctors” Won’t Fix the Provider Shortage

When we hear that the United States is facing a health care provider shortage, the most common response is: We need more doctors. It sounds intuitive. When it seems like we don’t have...

Gregory J. Privitera, James J. Gillespie | 27 Apr 2026

Manufacturing Fear, Selling Hate: How the Far Right Turns Crisis into Power

On December 3, 2024, then–President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea stunned the world by declaring martial law out of the blue. In a televised address, he emphasized the inevitability of martial law by...

Myungji Yang | 21 Apr 2026

What Is Culture For?

From The United Arab Republic, 1963 (Cairo: Information Department) When I started researching the Egyptian Ministry of Culture (formerly National Guidance), I wondered why the government would...

Chihab El Khachab | 15 Apr 2026

Sex and Sports: Transgender Rights and the Culture War Over Girls’ Sports

In recent years, few issues have been as socially and politically fraught and divisive as the question of whether transgender girls should be permitted to participate in girls’ sports. In the United...

Kimberly A. Yuracko | 15 Apr 2026

Bird and prejudice

When we think about prejudice, we think about people. People who are prejudiced against us; people whom we may be prejudiced against (whether we admit it or not). Yet not all prejudice is directed...

Gordon McMullan | 15 Apr 2026