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A "Gremlin" decorates a B-1B aircraft of the 28th Bombardment Wing at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, 1988

Ghosts in the Machine

Forty years ago, Hollywood made gremlins loveable—portraying them as adorable, furry creatures. Their folkloric origins are far more sinister.

The Where We Were

Gae Aulenti: An Independent, International Architect

One of the best-known female architects to come out of Italy, Aulenti found fame with her transformation of a dated Parisian train station into the Musée d’Orsay.

Reading Lists

All Travelers are Infiltrators: An Introduction to the Study of Travel Writing

Travel writing as a genre has arguably been around for centuries, but it didn’t emerge as a distinct field of academic study until the 1980s.

Unearthing Justice

Bye-Bye, Russian Gas!

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sparked an energy revolution, forcing European states to reconsider their dependence on Russian oil imports.

Autism Research, Dungan Food, and Forest Histories

Well-researched stories from Black Perspectives, Mongabay, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

Most Recent

From “Stage-Land: Curious Habits and Customs of its Inhabitants” described by Jerome K Jerome with drawings by J Bernard Partridge. Published by Chatto & Windus, London, in 1890. The book is an entertaining account of the types of characters to be found upon the theatre stage and this shifty-looking individual is the ‘stage villain’. Of course, you would know that from his immaculate appearance and the fact that he is always smoking a cigarette. Things which would never happen in real life, naturally. And he does have a distressing tendency to get knocked down by the hero fairly regularly. Sad, really.

Arts & Culture

How to Be a British Villain

In classic British detective stories, villains might be atavistic monsters, foreign menaces, or conniving professionals—all tied to aristocrats’ anxieties.

Air Force Chief of Staff General David C. Jones briefs the National Security Council on possible military options during the second meeting on the Mayaguez crisis, 1975

Politics & History

The Mayaguez Incident: The Last Chapter of the Vietnam War

Reeling from defeat in Vietnam, the US invaded a Cambodian island to rescue a US freighter—just before its crew members, who were elsewhere, were released.

The Where We Were

Gae Aulenti: An Independent, International Architect

One of the best-known female architects to come out of Italy, Aulenti found fame with her transformation of a dated Parisian train station into the Musée d’Orsay.

Reading Lists

All Travelers are Infiltrators: An Introduction to the Study of Travel Writing

Travel writing as a genre has arguably been around for centuries, but it didn’t emerge as a distinct field of academic study until the 1980s.

Unearthing Justice

Bye-Bye, Russian Gas!

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sparked an energy revolution, forcing European states to reconsider their dependence on Russian oil imports.

Autism Research, Dungan Food, and Forest Histories

Well-researched stories from Black Perspectives, Mongabay, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

Archimedes Rediscovered: Technology and Ancient History

Advanced imaging technologies help scholars reveal and share lost texts from the ancient world.

A circle of white claymation guys around a black claymation guy

Reading Lists

Racist Humor: Exploratory Readings

An introduction to the history and theory of racist humor and the social role it plays in Western societies.

Education & Society

Why Does the Bible Forbid Tattoos?

And have we been misinterpreting Leviticus?

Long Reads

Politics & History

The Genocide Before the Shoah

For a century, Jews in Turkey have maintained a strategic silence when it comes to recognizing the Armenian genocide. Could that be changing?

The cover of Lost Literacies: Experiments in the Nineteenth-Century US Comic Strip

Art & Art History

Lost Literacies Strips Down the Dawn of Comics

In his new book, literary historian Alex Beringer demonstrates how the birth of the genre of printed comic long preceded the Sunday Funny Pages.

Two glass of fresh pure water on white background with sunlight deep shadow of glass.

Science & Technology

Before Brita: A Brief History of Water Filtration

From ancient Egypt to post-industrial London, societies have long recognized the benefits of clean water and—mostly—have done what they can to provide it.

Politics & History

A Purrrrfect Political Storm

Crazy cat ladies have come to dominate this election season. It’s hardly the first time.

Editors' Picks

Politics & History

Thurgood Marshall

In a speech marking the bicentennial of the US Constitution, Marshall argued that its framers intentionally inscribed slavery into the American economy.

Politics & History

Building the Olympic Games

A close connection between architecture, athletics, and the urban fabric is central to the idea of the modern Olympic Games.

Politics & History

Policing the Holocaust in Paris

Unlike in the rest of Nazi-occupied Europe, the arrest of Jewish people was largely in the hands of ordinary policemen in France, especially in Paris.

Arts & Culture

Dorothy Richardson and the Stream of Consciousness

Though often associated with Virginia Woolf and James Joyce, “stream of consciousness” novels spilled first from the pen of British modernist Dorothy Richardson.

Education & Society

Endangered: North American Cricket

Cricket was played and cheered in the United States and Canada in the nineteenth century. Why did it fall out of favor with sports fans?

Quirky History

A detail from Portrait of Ferry Carondelet with his Secretary by Sebastiano del Piombo, 1510

The Merchants of Venice—In Code

Sixteenth-century Venice conducted its affairs in code, so much so that cryptology was professionalized and regulated by the state.

Two poachers with a sack. At their feet their lurcher dogs and the corpses of several hares.

Frederick Gowing, King of Poachers

The cultural construction of poaching meant Gowing’s trespasses were understood differently than other kinds of theft in an industrializing Britain.

A Selection of Student Confessions

Did you break a campus rule? Let the students of Millersville Normal School show you how to confess to the administration.

Shared Collections on JSTOR

A Purrrrfect Political Storm

Crazy cat ladies have come to dominate this election season. It’s hardly the first time.

A Selection of Student Confessions

Did you break a campus rule? Let the students of Millersville Normal School show you how to confess to the administration.

Site of house of Garðar Svavarson, the first house built in Iceland.

On the Anniversary of Iceland’s Independence

Iceland is celebrating its 80th anniversary. Three photograph collections shared on JSTOR show how much has—and hasn’t—changed on the island since independence.

Syllabus

Celebrating Indigenous Peoples and Cultures

More and more states are choosing to celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day instead of Columbus Day.

Voting in American Politics: A Syllabus

From battles to expand the franchise to the mysteries of turnout, voting is one of the most important things to understand about US politics.

An illustration of a hand holding a set of hand cuffs

A True Crime Syllabus

How did we become so obsessed with “true crime”? This multidisciplinary syllabus shows how we view crime as a whole and how those views have changed over time.

Reading Lists

Surrealist artists at the first Surrealist Exhibition to be held in London. Back row, from left, are Rupert Lee, Ruthven Todd, Salvador Dali, Paul Eluard, Roland Penrose, Herbert Read, E LT Mesens, George Reavey and Hugh Sykes-Davies. Front row, from left, Diana Lee, Nusch Eluard, Eileen Agar, Sheila Legge and unknown.

Surrealism at 100: A Reading List

On the centennial of the founding of Surrealism, this reading list examines its radical beginnings, its mass popularity, and its continued evolution.

A young woman sits on the grass with her baby, USA, circa 1975

Motherhood in America: A Reading List

The experience and work of motherhood remained understudied for generations, but since the 1970s, scholars have engaged with the topic in diverse ways.