A poorly designed bottle sits atop a mantelpiece, contents slowly leaking into the surrounding environment. Not toxic, but affective, this bottle contains air collected from the Irish countryside—captured, commodified, and trans-ported across the globe to lonely “expats” separated from families amid the shuttering of global borders in response to the COVID-19 pandem…
In the past few decades, scholars have celebrated the end of history and pro-claimed its rebirth. Outside the walls of the academy, in the media, it is easy to find claims that readers and viewers are “witnessing” (or consuming) history, that certain events, from pie- eating contests to war catastrophes and natural phenomena, are “historical.” Govern…