| | | | By Made by History / Produced by Olivia B. Waxman | America's national mermaid obsession may have reached new heights in 2025, with "mermaidcore" jewelry, live mermaid shows, and shimmering fashions. The fad reflects a deep-rooted national attachment to mermaid imagery and lore. And, as Lindsey Stewart writes in Made by History, that dynamic has surprisingly profound roots: Part of the appeal of mermaids is that they symbolize collective rebellion, especially in African American history. For example, stories about Mami Wata, a mermaid figure, have circulated since the 19th century in Black communities, where stories about mermaids' struggle for freedom mirrored the storytellers' own. Reviving and sharing stories of Black mermaids and the famous "conjure women" who helped keep them alive, Stewart argues, can help inspire ongoing battles against oppression. | The Dan David Prize, the largest history prize in the world (and a sponsor of Made by History), annually awards $300,000 each to nine early and mid-career scholars and practitioners in historical disciplines, acknowledging their outstanding achievements to date and to support future work. Anyone can nominate a practitioner in the relevant disciplines, and nominations for the 2026 Prize are open until Sept. 24. For more information visit dandavidprize.org/nominate. | |
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | | This week in 1981: Meryl Streep |  | The Sep. 7, 1981, cover of TIME |
| Francesco Scavullo |
| "The reviews of [Kramer vs. Kramer] were rapturous, and she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. But the din from feature writers eager to probe her personal life was oppressive to Streep, a private person who feels (following the fashion of Actor Robert De Niro and some lordly professional athletes) that newsprint could wrap fish even better if reporters did not go through the messy and wasteful process of putting ink on it. 'For a while there it was either me or the Ayatullah on the covers of national magazines,' she says with no pleasure. 'It was excessive hype.' Of course, the line between excessive hype and just the right amount of hype is difficult to draw in show business. But the excitement Streep stirs whenever she appears on a screen or a stage has nothing to do with puffery. It is a real, if sometimes clumsily expressed, response to an artist of rare skill and presence." |
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| | This week in 2008: John McCain |  | The Sep. 8, 2008, cover of TIME |
| Platon |
| "To John McCain, honor means telling the truth, doing the right thing rather than the easy thing and putting America's needs ahead of your needs. But as he has reminded us so many times, McCain is not a saint. And he is now the Republican nominee for President, the anointed leader of the party establishment he has antagonized so often. He has a real chance to extend his public service to the Oval Office and an abiding conviction that these perilous times require his leadership. But getting there in a year when so much is stacked against the GOP may require him to play by rules that don't always conform to the code of honor to which he subscribes." |
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| This week in 2010: Israel |  | The Sep. 13, 2010, cover of TIME |
| Bartholomew Cooke for TIME |
| "As three Presidents, a King and their own Prime Minister gather at the White House to begin a fresh round of talks on peace between Israel and the Palestinians, the truth is, Israelis are no longer preoccupied with the matter. They're otherwise engaged; they're making money; they're enjoying the rays of late summer. A watching world may still see their country as being defined by the blood feud with the Arabs whose families used to live on this land and whether that conflict can be negotiated away, but Israelis say they have moved on… 'There is no sense of urgency' about the peace process, says Tamar Hermann, a political scientist who has measured the Israeli public's appetite for a negotiated settlement every month since 1994, the year after the Oslo accords seemed to bring peace so close, Israelis thought they could touch it." |
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