Data quality is a key input in efforts to link individuals across census records. We examine the extreme case of low data quality by identifying US census enumerators who fabricated entire families. We provide clear evidence of fake people included in the 1920 US Census for Homestead, Pennsylvania. We use the features of this case study to identify other places where information in the census may have been falsified. We develop an automated approach that identifies census sheets that have much lower match rates to other census records than would be expected, given the characteristics of the people recorded on each sheet. We perform a hand-check on the suspicious sheets using standard genealogy tools and identify at least 90 sheets where the entire census sheet appears to have been fabricated.

The war of 1578–1590 marked a turning point in Ottoman-Safavid relations. It followed thirty-three years of peace and ushered in over half a century of nearly continuous crisis and bloodshed. Militarily, the conflict was centered primarily in the Caucasus, where the Ottomans achieved significant territorial gains, formalized in the Treaty of Constantinople (1590). This war is among the better documented of the Ottoman-Safavid conflicts thanks to a wealth of contemporary sources, particularly from the Ottoman side. However, the lack of contemporary Safavid sources, as well as the neglect of local and global perspectives, has led to a biased and partial understanding, which the present special section seeks to address. Two of this section’s articles focus on the Caucasus campaign of 1578–1579, emphasizing Ottoman interactions with local populations and the daily experiences of ordinary soldiers (Alsancakli and Stevens). Two other articles examine Safavid relations with Russia and the Italian states in the context of a potential anti-Ottoman alliance (Rybar and Trentacoste). All four contributions are based on the presentation and publication or translation of previously unknown or overlooked primary sources.

This paper is situated within the context of the onset of British imperialism in Nigeria at the end of the nineteenth century, with a particular focus on the conquest of the Ijebu Kingdom. The episode, as discussed in the paper, is intended for stage or screen theatrical adaptation. It demonstrates the value of historical dramatization based on data foregrounded by standard historical and relevant research methodologies. The principal text in the paper, derived from primary and research-based sources, is outlined in a chronological narrative. The general idea is to enable the development of a script to create a historical drama.

In politically divided environments like Thailand, affective polarization (AP) and social distrust threaten democratic stability and hinder consensus-building. Using an original survey (N = 2,016) conducted in 2021 during intense political turmoil, we examine how perceived ideological differences and media consumption shape AP. Our findings show that perceived—rather than actual—ideological differences drive out-group animosity, affecting trust in policymaking, political discourse, and attitudes toward justice. We also highlight the role of echo chambers created by the consumption of one-sided media that exaggerates polarization and amplifies hostility toward the out-group.

This article examines the experience and transformation of the late Yuan Huizhou scholar Zhao Pang (1319–1369) during the transition from the Yuan dynasty to the Ming. In contrast to his reputation as a reclusive scholar devoted to his studies of the classics, and to later appraisals that viewed him as a Yuan “remnant,” Zhao actively engaged with the transition as it happened in his home region. Recovering this history from the writings in his collected works, this article reveals his attitude toward the powers that governed Huizhou in this period and shows both how his attitude remained consistent and how it changed. In place of the framework of loyalty and dynastic identity, this article proposes that local literati like Zhao Pang are better interpreted through local realities, and put in the context of the forms of literati writing and political participation that developed in the specific political system of the Yuan.

In the seventeenth century, Chinese philologists rejected imperial orthodoxy and sought to return to the ways of antiquity through textual criticism; they described their approach using a first century phrase: “Seeking Truth from Facts” (shishi qiushi, 實事求是). Two centuries later, Mao Zedong appropriated this phrase to encapsulate his approach towards revolutionary work, which privileged the first-hand investigation of local socioeconomic conditions. In between these episodes, shishi qiushi was found in automobile advertisements, missionary translations, and on the gates of Confucian academies. Since the 1700s, Chinese intellectuals have found shishi qiushi strangely alluring, and employed the phrase to describe their intellectual and moral commitments. To explain this longevity, this article provides a genealogy of shishi qiushi and argues that the phrase came to be associated with the epistemic values of reflexivity, expertise, and syncretism. These qualities became valued by Chinese intellectuals as they navigated a rapidly changing world.

Cross-border remittances from South Africa have played a central role in the food availability and well-being of migrant labour households in semi-arid Zimbabwe. However, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and containment measures introduced by both the South African and Zimbabwean governments hampered the cross-border remittance system and the movement of goods. This paper explores the food provisioning and availability impacts of the changes brought by the cocktail of policy measures on migrant sending households, and whether these households were able to find alternative food sources locally. The study highlights a precarious situation for affected households, which saw their main source of food provisioning curtailed. It argues that the situation was further aggravated by the risk associated with alternative remittance channels, and the non-availability of local alternatives for these households, which were excluded from accessing food parcels/aid by the criteria used to determine beneficiaries. The paper demonstrates the vulnerability of migrant labour households to economic and labour market changes.

In a longue durée study of the European context from 1918 to the present day, this article critically assesses alternative modalities of self-determination proposed by two non-state, transnational actors – the Congress of European Nationalities (1925–1942) and the Federal Union of European Nationalities (established 1949). Situating the activism of these organizations within an international system that has prioritized state determination over the self-determination of peoples, the study charts their attempts to renegotiate dominant statist paradigms of minority protection and human rights, using ideals and frameworks of European integration as a guide. The analysis shows that although the rise of the European Union after 1945 created an environment far more propitious than the one that existed between the two World Wars, transnational activism has faced consistent limitations on its effectiveness, arising not just from the external machinations of states but also from internal divisions within the organizations concerned. In this respect, the study also sheds light on an enduring tension between collective and individual concepts of self-determination within contemporary Europe, demonstrated most recently by the Federal Union of European Nationalities’ failed European Citizens’ Initiative on a “Minority Safepack” during 2013–2021.