_{Should African Americans receive reparations for the racial inequalities created under slavery?  Can the recognition of atrocities committed by authoritarian regimes reconcile victims with perpetrators?  Must artwork looted generations ago be returned to the descendants of the original owners?  In recent years, groups around the world have sought redress for the injuries of the past through political action in the present.  History for them is not a collection of dry facts stowed away in the musty pages of textbooks—it is a matter of contention that has real consequences in the present day.  This site examines four areas in which history has become an object of public policy: the recognition of peoples as sovereign nations, the reconciliation of victims and perpetrators of human rights abuses, reparations for historical injustices, and the repatriation of cultural property.}