Yan Slobodkin

A series of horrific crimes rocked the nation’s capital during the interwar era. Taking advantage of the city’s socioeconomic and political conditions, as well as its racially segregated landscape, a serial killer preyed on a vulnerable community of urban citizens: Black women. Drawing from a myriad of archival materials, this essay highlights how pervasive patterns of race and gender exclusion left DC Black women susceptible to police brutality, serial murder, and municipal neglect.

From Gaza to Sudan to Ukraine, our world’s ongoing wars have often sparked debates about one term: famine. Pundits and reporters have argued about whether famines have arisen amid these tragedies, as well as about whom to blame. Yan Slobodkin’s fascinating new book The Starving Empire shows the history behind these debates. By explaining the history of famine relief in France’s former empire, Slobodkin provides a new lens on the history of colonial governance, decolonization and humanitarianism.

Skip to the content Portents of Something, Well, Big The World On April 5, a Reuters article mentioned in passing that there was famine in Gaza. Soon after, they issued a correction: “Gaza suffers widespread hunger, not famine.” An error had been made. Famine was “imminent,” the correction read, but did not yet exist.