Robert Zaretsky is a professor of history at the University of Houston’s Honors College and the author of Victories Never Last: Reading and Caregiving in a Time of Plague.
Articles by
Robert Zaretsky
TOPSHOT - A street artist writes "Laicite" during the inauguration of "Place de La Laicite" (Secularism Square) in Paris on December 9, 2015. / AFP / ALAIN JOCARD / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY MENTION OF THE ARTIST UPON PUBLICATION - TO ILLUSTRATE THE EVENT AS SPECIFIED IN THE CAPTION (Photo credit should read ALAIN JOCARD/AFP/Getty Images)
Bordeaux's mayor, Alain Juppe who stands for the UMP main opposition party's presidential ticket, smiles during a reception at Bordeaux's city hall on October 10, 2014. AFP PHOTO / NICOLAS TUCAT (Photo credit should read NICOLAS TUCAT/AFP/Getty Images)
Former French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira speaks to the media in New York on January 29, 2016.
Taubira quit in protest over the government's efforts to strip convicted French-born terrorists of their citizenship if they have a second nationality. Taubira, popular among the ruling Socialists of President Francois Hollande but a target of criticism from right-wing politicians, tweeted: "Sometimes to resist means staying, sometimes resisting means leaving." / AFP / Jewel Samad (Photo credit should read JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)
epa05024948 French far-right party Front National (FN) president Marine Le Pen delivers a statement at a press conference at FN's headquarters in Nanterre, France, 14 November, 2015. Le Pen suspends her election campaign at the 13 November Paris attacks that left at least 120 people dead. Eight assailants were killed, seven when they detonated their explosive belts, and one when he was shot by officers, police said. The French government declared a state of emergency, tightened border controls and mobilized 1,500 soldiers in consequence to the 13 November Paris attacks EPA/CHRISTOPHE PETIT TESSON FINLAND OUT
CALAIS, FRANCE - APRIL 18: A migrant looks out to the English Channel on April 18, 2007 from Calais, France. Many, who have no money or passports, spend months trying to stow away on trains and trucks heading for English ports. The Mayor of Calais has proposed new facilities offering food and support to the hundreds of refugees living rough near to ferry terminals. Migrants come from as far as Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and other war torn countries, sometimes taking up to a year to travel to Calais - the port nearest to the United Kingdom. French volunteers and charities provide food and support but local police frequently raid the migrant's makeshift camps and feeding areas. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
Picture taken on January 27, 2015 shows a graffitti reading "Je suis Charlie" on a wall in a street of Paris. AFP PHOTO / JOEL SAGET (Photo credit should read JOEL SAGET/AFP/Getty Images)
Rennes, FRANCE: France's opposition Socialists (PS) leader Francois Hollande gives a speech 08 April 2006 in Rennes, western France, during the party's congress. Sporadic protests against the French government's new youth jobs law continued nationwide 08 April as politicians sought a face-saving exit from the crisis. Presidents of 13 of the country's 84 universities, most of them paralysed for weeks by protests, called on the government to lay the First Employment Contract (CPE) to rest. Union leaders called for a clear statement by April 17 that the CPE was dead and buried and said that otherwise the mobilisation that has brought millions on to the steets would continue. AFP PHOTO DAVID ADEMAS (Photo credit should read DAVID ADEMAS/AFP/Getty Images)
