Joan of Arc: How a Medieval Peasant Became Everyone's Martyr
How one burned peasant girl became simultaneously a republican icon, Catholic saint, and feminist symbol across five centuries of ideological contest.
The Many Deaths of Socrates: How Philosophy Created Its Founding Martyr
Twenty-four centuries of philosophical tradition have made Socrates's execution mean everything except what it meant to the Athenians who voted for it.
The Strange Afterlife of Alexander the Great in Medieval Islamic Memory
How a pagan Macedonian conqueror became a righteous monotheist in medieval Muslim thought
When Founding Fathers Become Founding Sinners: The Jefferson Paradox
How America's philosopher of freedom became its exemplar of hypocrisy—and what the shift reveals about historical memory
The Sanitization of Gandhi: How the Mahatma Lost His Contradictions
How commemorative traditions transformed a contradictory political figure into a one-dimensional moral icon, and why recovering complexity matters.
The Rehabilitation of Richard III: How a Tudor Villain Became a Sympathetic King
From Shakespeare's monster to Leicester's king: five centuries of reputation warfare over England's most contested monarch
How We Forgot That Victorian England Worshipped Oliver Cromwell
Victorian England elevated Oliver Cromwell to national hero status before quietly abandoning him, revealing how interpretive communities shape which historical figures we choose to remember.
How the Vikings Went from Pagan Raiders to Pop Culture Heroes
From monastic nightmare to nationalist hero to fantasy icon—tracing what each generation's Vikings reveal about themselves rather than the Norse.
When Did Columbus Become a Villain? The Transformation of Discovery Narratives
How a national hero became a symbol of colonial violence reveals more about changing American values than about Columbus himself
The Two Genghis Khans: Barbarian Destroyer and Enlightened Empire-Builder
How the same conqueror became Europe's ultimate barbarian and Mongolia's greatest statesman reveals geography's power over historical memory.
The Invention of the American Founding Father: When Did Washington Become a Demigod?
How a slave-owning Virginia planter was systematically transformed into America's secular Moses through deliberate biographical invention and architectural sacralization.
How Cleopatra Became Three Different People Across Twenty Centuries
From Roman propaganda to Renaissance stage to modern archaeology, each century reinvented Egypt's last queen for its own purposes.
Why Napoleon's Reputation Oscillates Between Tyrant and Genius Every Generation
How each generation constructs its own Napoleon reveals more about contemporary political anxieties than about the historical figure himself.
The Emperor Who Never Existed: How Prester John Became Historical Fact
How a forged letter became papal policy, shaped exploration, and appeared on maps for five centuries—revealing the fragile foundations of historical fact.