It’s been more than 25 years since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, but the specter of communism still lingers as a conflicting memory. Over the intervening decades, the legacy of the USSR has been oversimplified into irrelevance—either the loser in an epic battle of ideologies or a totalitarian regime that was destined to fail. In Beyond the Wall: Art and Artifacts From the G.D.R. (TASCHEN, 2014), a 900-page picture-filled tome cataloguing the massive collection of German Democratic Republic ephemera housed in the Wende Museum in Los Angeles, a new vision of the supposed black and white Cold War emerges. The book showcases a society that, much like our own, was both vibrant and complex, propagandized but human, and casts doubt on the “us versus them” narrative of the history books. Inside, a fuller picture of life in the vilified G.D.R. emerges in all its sad, beautiful, and occasionally humorous glory: spy-pen recording devices sit with neon busts of Lenin; ultra-modernist cooking utensils alongside homemade discotheque advertisements. The book paints an extensive portrait of life inside the repressive regime, revealing both the banality of authoritarianism and a nuanced view of life in the failed state.
The brainchild of the Wende Museum’s curator, Justin Jampol, a rockstar historian turned filmmaker/curator, Beyond the Wall’s 2,500 objects are the product of four years of intense research and collection, thoughtful curation, and prodigious help from those willing to empty out musty government archives and basements to create a rich portrait of the “other.” For historians as well as critical thinkers, this book presents a new angle on a supposedly rigid era. “As soon as you introduce a wider berth of resources, history begins to change,” says Jampol. “Many of the histories I've admired have come from people who were willing to question where their sources were coming from, what's being collected and why… and what's not. To ask ‘How is it impacting the histories that are being written—beyond direct political reasons?’" While legendary Berlin institutions like Checkpoint Charlie and the Stasi Museum showcase the dark and dramatic aspects of the regime, they don’t accurately reflect the everyday. This new collection offers something different.
“We [as a culture] define ourselves in many ways by what we aren't,” continues Jampol, “and we impose the idea of what we aren't onto others.” But ultimately, as the book asserts, the citizens of the G.D.R. were a lot more similar to us than anyone assumed. "I really think the only enemy we have is the presumptuous. Whatever the opinion is, or interpretation, it's not simple. No matter what you think, or think is right, there is going to be something in the book to counter that. It's a period that is prone to oversimplified assessment, but there is something to asking, ‘Is that right?’ That kind of questioning is ultimately what history can give us.”
Janitor mops a hallwayCanva
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"Now I'm intrigued." 
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Problematic homework question
A student’s brilliant homework answer outsmarted her teacher's ridiculously sexist question
From an early age, children absorb societal norms—including gender stereotypes. But one sharp 8-year-old from Birmingham, England, challenged a sexist homework question designed to reinforce outdated ideas.
An English teacher created a word puzzle with clues containing “UR.” One prompt read “Hospital Lady,” expecting students to answer “nurse.”
While most did, Yasmine wrote “surgeon”—a perfectly valid answer. Her father, Robert Sutcliffe, shared the incident on X (formerly Twitter), revealing the teacher had scribbled “or nurse” beside Yasmine’s response, revealing the biased expectation.
For Yasmine, the answer was obvious: both her parents are surgeons. Her perspective proves how representation shapes ambition. If children only see women as nurses, they internalize limits. But when they witness diversity—like female surgeons—they envision broader possibilities.
As Rebecca Brand noted in The Guardian: “Their developing minds are that little bit more unquestioning about what they see and hear on their screens. What message are we giving those impressionable minds about women? And how might we be cutting the ambitions of little girls short before they've even had the chance to develop properly?”
X users praised Yasmine while critiquing the question. Such subtle conditioning reinforces stereotypes early. Research confirms this: a study found children as young as four associate jobs with gender, with girls choosing “feminine” roles (e.g., nursing) and boys opting for “masculine” ones (e.g., engineering).
Even preschoolers avoided careers misaligned with their gender, proving sexist conditioning begins startlingly young.
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The problem spans globally. Data from 50 countries reveals that by age 15, girls disproportionately abandon math and science, while boys avoid caregiving fields like teaching and nursing. This segregation perpetuates stereotypes—women are underrepresented in STEM, and men in caregiving roles—creating a cycle that limits both genders.
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This article originally appeared last year.