When the World Turned Upside Down

When the World Turned Upside Down is a collection of 66 essays and opinion columns written between 2019 and 2022, a period of momentous—some unimaginable—developments in the United States and across the world. This book stands at the intersection of opinion journalism, history, and chronicling offering a dialogue between past and present (or present and past). They are, to use the often-quoted phrase, first drafts of history.

Over the past five years, the world has witnessed several "unimaginables" about which the author felt compelled to write. Some of the book’s essays identify, analyze, and connect parallels between the U.S. Antebellum and Civil War and the contemporary increasingly polarized context that reached an explosive peak during the 2020 elections and the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Shrouded in a cloud of unprecedented global pestilence, the world has witnessed dramatic political and geopolitical change, mostly for the worse: China, Russia, Hungary, Belarus, Myanmar, Cuba, even Puerto Rico. Essays in this book discuss these transformations from a historical perspective as well as mass popular resistance, in places like Cuba, where they seemed unimaginable.

The book’s final section, "Not Boring at All: Globalization and World Politics," explores the global ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical rearrangements related to China’s meteoric ascendance as a world power, Russia’s militaristic expansionism, and related topics.

"In When the World Turned Upside Down, Luis Martínez-Fernández demonstrates that he is not ‘merely’ an acclaimed historian, but an engaging, sharp-witted social commentator. This excellent collection of columns, written during and about what Martínez-Fernández rightly terms ‘the unimaginable events of 2019-2022,’ is dazzling for his easy, readable blend of history, sociology, popular culture, politics and more."

—Jeff Robbins, Columnist, Boston Herald and Creators Syndicate

"Martínez-Fernández’s book reads like a series of missives from the front, capturing the drama of unfolding, often unpredictable, events. The author is a master story-weaver, drawing from the warp and weft of our national and global histories to reveal patterns in today’s events."

—Suzette Martinez Standring, Author of The Art of Column Writing

"Professor Martínez-Fernández fuses the perspective of a historian with a journalist’s eye on wide-ranging contemporary events. The result is an exhilarating read and a broader understanding of today’s world."

—George Breslauer, Professor and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Emeritus, UC Berkeley