Articles by David Ludden

Historians still do not have all the records they need to fully understand the freedom struggle of Bangladesh and offer a proper appreciation of the role of all the participants. Political parties remain justifiably attached to their founders; partisans attached to India and Pakistan also have their memories, points of view and all merit attention. To recover the deeper history of independence, however, scholars need to study its popular dimensions, and, in that light, it is most obvious that radical student leaders and countless lesser lights in the people's struggle for independence still do not have the place in history they deserve.

Adam Smith in Beijing: Lineages of the Twenty-First Century by Giovanni Arrighi;

The American imperial empire has remained largely invisible: only very recently have Americans just begun to learn about their imperial history. But information about empire is fragmented and extensively filtered and the American public remains by and large unaware of the reality and costs of empire. Until empire is placed on the public agenda, it can never be effectively criticised or made an object of basic policy change.