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Emily Brontë
Arts & Culture

Emily Brontë’s Lost Second Novel

The author of the English literary classic Wuthering Heights died tragically young, leaving her second novel unfinished.

Black Radicals

Marcus Garvey is shown in a military uniform as the "Provisional President of Africa" during a parade on the opening day of the annual Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World at Lenox Avenue in Harlem, New York City, 1922

Marcus Garvey’s Journey Began in Central America

Marcus Garvey left Jamaica unemployed, an anti-colonial trade unionist who British authorities considered dangerous.

Reading Lists

An illustration of a revolver

Guns in America: Foundations and Key Concepts

This non-exhaustive list of readings on the role of guns in US history and society introduces the field as a subject of scholarly inquiry.

Cabinet of Curiosities

Peter the Great cutting a Boyar's beard

Peter the Great’s Beard Tax

Why did the Russian tsar seek to ban beards?

Reveal Digital Collections

How Women Fought Misogyny in the Underground Press

Men dominated the underground papers of the 1960s. Feminist journalists like Robin Morgan and Sheila Ryan called them on their sexism.

Most Recent

Antonio DeSilva, who is currently homeless, plays with his dogs outside his tent on September 09, 2019 in Los Angeles, California
Education & Society

What Leisure Means for People Who Are Homeless

It's a human right to have opportunities for rest and time off. Even if you live on the streets.
Classroom of students with their teachers inside a Walapai school at Hackbury, Arizona, circa 1900
Politics & History

Life in Indigenous Boarding Schools

Survivors of schools in the US spoke with scholars about their experiences of cruelty, neglect, and cultural degradation.
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mumler%27s_photographs_in_Harpers_Weekly.jpg
Arts & Culture

The Dressy Ghosts of Victorian Literature

Realism was exceptionally well suited (heh) for elaborate descriptions of spectral clothing.
A Spring Peeper rests casually on a garden flower.
Plants & Animals

Are Peepers Starting to Peep Earlier?

The call of the common frog species Pseudacris crucifer is a reliable marker of spring. Will climate change affect that?

More Stories

Black Radicals

Marcus Garvey is shown in a military uniform as the "Provisional President of Africa" during a parade on the opening day of the annual Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World at Lenox Avenue in Harlem, New York City, 1922

Marcus Garvey’s Journey Began in Central America

Marcus Garvey left Jamaica unemployed, an anti-colonial trade unionist who British authorities considered dangerous.

Reading Lists

An illustration of a revolver

Guns in America: Foundations and Key Concepts

This non-exhaustive list of readings on the role of guns in US history and society introduces the field as a subject of scholarly inquiry.

Cabinet of Curiosities

Peter the Great cutting a Boyar's beard

Peter the Great’s Beard Tax

Why did the Russian tsar seek to ban beards?

Reveal Digital Collections

How Women Fought Misogyny in the Underground Press

Men dominated the underground papers of the 1960s. Feminist journalists like Robin Morgan and Sheila Ryan called them on their sexism.

Trending

Emily Brontë
Arts & Culture

Emily Brontë’s Lost Second Novel

The author of the English literary classic Wuthering Heights died tragically young, leaving her second novel unfinished.
Peter the Great cutting a Boyar's beard
Cabinet of Curiosities

Peter the Great’s Beard Tax

Why did the Russian tsar seek to ban beards?
English Herbarium
Education & Society

Herbs & Verbs: How to Do Witchcraft for Real

Like for real real.

Long Reads

Dolly Parton and a cougar
Arts & Culture

How Dolly Parton Is Literally Like a Cougar

The mountain cat’s cries, like Dolly Parton’s famous songs, carry the diverse voices of rural Appalachia.
A person in African clothing with New York City in the background
Education & Society

The “Social Distance” between Africa and African-Americans

American popular culture inhibits a close relationship between African-Americans and the African continent.
The Bitter Potion by Adriaen Brouwer, ca. 1636 - 1638
Arts & Culture

Is Disgust Related to Morality?

The disgust response acts as a behavioral immune system, protecting us from disease, but produces strong reactions to perceived out-groups.
Performance of Color-Based Versus Semantic Segmentation
Plants & Animals

Botanists Use Machine Learning to Accelerate Research

A new artificial intelligence program called ARADEEPOPSIS will help botanists rapidly classify plant phenotypes.

Editors' Picks

Education & Society

Three Centuries of Distance Learning

We will probably remember 2020 as the time when distance education exploded. But the infrastructure that enabled this expansion was years in the making.
Education & Society

‘Traditional Values’ Meet New Technology in the Home Schooling Movement

Michael W. Apple traces both the growth of home schooling and its related political activism to virtual communities made possible by the Internet.
Education & Society

Does Virtual Learning Work for Every Student?

Given Covid-19, schools have limited options for teaching kids. What’s working and not working in the era of online learning?
Education & Society

Is It Time to Reexamine Grading?

There’s compelling evidence for stronger student work and more meaningful instruction when grades in K-12 education are eliminated or made unrecognizable.
Education & Society

Do You Suffer from Library Anxiety?

What is library anxiety? Librarians and experts discuss how technology is changing students' attitudes toward libraries and librarians.

Economics

A bunch of flowering sweet peas

Boosters Used the Sweet Pea to Define California

In the late 19th century, Californians were eager to part with their reputation for wildness, so they adopted an "English" flower as their symbol.
1 Dollar, Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank of Rahway, New Jersey, 1850

Banks’ Own Private Currencies in 19th-Century America

Before the Civil War local banks issued their own money. It was totally legit, too.
President Joe Biden holds a semiconductor during his remarks before signing an Executive Order on the economy

Semiconductor Shortages End an Era of Globalization

Our security studies columnist on leanness, supply chains, and resilience in a post-pandemic world.

Columns

An anatomical machine of Prince Raimondo di Sangro

The Anatomical Machines of Naples’ Alchemist Prince

Rumor had it that these machines were once the Prince’s servants, whom he murdered and transformed into anatomical displays. Scholars showed otherwise.
Engraved portrait of George Washington Williams

George Washington Williams and the Origins of Anti-Imperialism

Initially supportive of Belgian King Leopold II’s claim to have created a “free state” of Congo, Williams changed his mind when he saw the horrors of empire.
Intricate Paper cutting of a hunting scene by Dutch artist Joanna Koerten

Joanna Koerten’s Scissor-Cut Works Were Compared to Michelangelo

And then, snip by snip, she was cut out of the frame of Renaissance art history.

Open Community Collections on JSTOR

Sanger Circus Collection

In Victorian England, the circus appealed across an otherwise class-divided society, its audiences ranging from poor peddlers to prestigious public figures.

Smoking Banana Peels to Get High Was Briefly a Thing

But it didn't work. The rumor, spread by the underground press in 1967, probably led to many disappointed hippies.
Volume 4, Issue 1 of Berkeley Barb from January 6th, 1967

Remembering the Human Be-In

More than 20,000 participants in the counterculture gathered in San Francisco’s Golden Gate park to do little more than simply “be” together.

Correspondence courses didn’t really catch on until the nineteenth century, when improvements to the postal service made it practical.

Three Centuries of Distance Learning

Syllabus

Pro-Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol following a rally with President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Politics and Power in the United States: A Syllabus

Historical and scholarly context for the January 6, 2021 insurrection.
"I Voted" stickers

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 U.S. politics.
A forest fire reflected in Okanagan Lake, British Columbia, Canada

Wildfires and Climate Change

Scholarly research offers insight into the ways climate change and other factors are contributing to the wildfire crisis.

Plant of the Month

Cork oak (Quercus suber) pasture near Arcos de la Frontera, Cádiz, Spain.

Plant of the Month: Cork

Why is cork so strongly associated with bottle stoppers? The answer goes back centuries.
Advertisement for Ayer's Sarsaparilla

Plant of the Month: Sarsaparilla

From an early modern treatment for syphilis to Saturday-morning cartoons, the meaning and significance of the plant has transformed through time and space.
Jacques Cartier at Hochelaga engraving from A popular history of the United States: from the first discovery of the western hemisphere by the Northmen, to the end of the first century of the union of the states; preceded by a sketch of the prehistoric period and the age of the mound builders

Plant of the Month: Tree of Life

Indigenous people in North America used the conifer as an effective cure for scurvy during cold winters.

Film & Media

Black Swan record label of Alberta Hunter recording, 1921.

The History of Black-Owned Record Labels

Decades before Motown ruled the radio, labels like Black Swan and Black Patti put out records that didn't stereotype African American music.
Photograph: Female fans of Frank Sinatra gaze adoringly at a picture of him in a copy of Modern Screen magazine, c. 1950 Source: Getty

How Teenage Girls Invented Fandom

They were mocked for their obsession with movies. But the fan culture they constructed help build Hollywood.
From THEM!, 1954

Fear of an Insect Planet

"Big bug movies" of the 1950s have been interpreted as projections of nuclear anxieties. But what if they were about...actual fear of bugs?

Politics & Government

Finistère by Rhona Haszard, 1926

What Happens When Rising Seas Shift Maritime Borders?

Some countries argue that they should keep their ocean territories, even if the land they're based on is submerged.
A view of part of the Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim on January 28, 2020 in Maale Adumim, West Bank.

Settlements and the Israel-Palestine Conflict: Background Reading

Scholarship about Israeli settlement in occupied Palestinian territories provides historical context for recent violence in the region.
Black and white photo of caring mother leaning over her baby

The Feminist History of “Child Allowances”

The Biden administration’s proposed “child allowances” draw on the feminist thought of Crystal Eastman, who advocated “motherhood endowments” 100 years ago.

Sustainability & The Environment

Firefighters monitor a controlled burn at Bouverie Preserve on May 30, 2017 in Glen Ellen, California

Smoke Pollution from Prescribed Burns vs. Wildfires

Government can regulate air quality. But some policies on smoke might be self-defeating.
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Deepwater_Horizon_offshore_drilling_unit_on_fire_2010.jpg

Where Did the Oil from the Deepwater Horizon Spill Go?

The public's focus eventually turned away from the 2010 disaster. Scientists, however, are still learning the scale of the devastation.
Permaculture in Stockholm

Permaculture is Agriculture Reimagined

No permaculture site is the same, but all draw on a unifying set of principles to maintain biodiversity and create resilient systems now and in the future.

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