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The Sharing Economy Was Dead on Arrival
Business & Economics

The Sharing Economy Was Dead on Arrival

Sharing economy firms like Lyft and Airbnb promised community, but the ideas they promoted as overturning the status quo are the status quo.

Lingua Obscura

Mr. Knightley and Emma Woodhouse, from Jane Austen's Emma

Jane Austen’s Subtly Subversive Linguistics

Why are Jane Austen books still so beloved? A linguist argues it has more to do with Austen's masterful use of language than with plot.

Suggested Readings

Head shot portraits of a woman making different faces.

Social Drama, China Relations, and a Tree of Blood

Well-researched stories from Slate, Aeon, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

Cabinet of Curiosities

Image from Livre des profits ruraux (late 15th century France)

The Landlord Asks for a Christmas Rose

Bizarre customs of landholding—from demands for flowers to ritualized flatulence—reflect the philosophy that developed under the feudal system.

Roundup

Winter Holidays

Celebrate with some seasonal scholarship from JSTOR Daily for the winter holidays.

Most Recent

Restoration of Burgess Shale fossil arthropod Waptia fieldensis
Natural Science

Meeting Earth’s First Animals at the Burgess Shale

The Burgess Shale is a huge deposit of unique fossils that reveals records of the middle Cambrian, a vital period in evolutionary history.
A man sitting in an office with a computer.
Business

The Link Between Startups and Privilege

Self-made? The most successful independent ventures are often backed by legacy money or networks.
Callery Pear Trees in bloom
Plants & Animals

When a Cultivated Tree Goes Rogue

The Callery pear was meant to help prevent fire blight from destroying the commercial pear industry. Then it became invasive.
Illustration from "The Nights of Straparola" (1894)
Arts & Culture

The Invention of the Passive Fairy Tale Heroine

European fairy tales featured bold, independent female characters—until the Reformation forced shifts in cultural attitudes towards women.

More Stories

Trending

The Sharing Economy Was Dead on Arrival
Business & Economics

The Sharing Economy Was Dead on Arrival

Sharing economy firms like Lyft and Airbnb promised community, but the ideas they promoted as overturning the status quo are the status quo.
Mr. Knightley and Emma Woodhouse, from Jane Austen's Emma
Lingua Obscura

Jane Austen’s Subtly Subversive Linguistics

Why are Jane Austen books still so beloved? A linguist argues it has more to do with Austen's masterful use of language than with plot.
Declaration of Independence
Politics & Government

Who Wrote the Declaration of Independence?

The Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Thomas Jefferson was not then credited with its authorship.

Long Reads

Georgie Hyde-Lees
Arts & Culture

W. B. Yeats’ Live-in “Spirit Medium”

In the Victorian era, a different kind of ghostwriting became popular—largely because it allowed men to take all the credit.
Science & Technology

DNA Forensics Can End Ivory Trafficking. Will Countries Play Along?

Scientists pinpoint poaching hotspots, but authorities aren’t always eager to join the fight.
A Canadian flag with a pot leaf at its center
Politics & Government

How Big Will Canada’s Legal Cannabis Market Be?

With recreational marijuana use now legal across Canada, companies are jockeying for market share while bureaucracies struggle to make estimates.
Nancy Drew: The Clue of the Dancing Puppet
Arts & Culture

The Secret Syndicate behind Nancy Drew

If you remember your grade-school reading log, the Nancy Drew mysteries are by Carolyn Keene. Only she never existed.

Editors' Picks

Politics & History

The Return of Socialism

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has catapulted the term "Democratic socialist" back into the spotlight. What does it actually mean to be a socialist?
Education & Society

Teaching Happiness

According to one scholar, we're inundated with ways to pursue pleasure, which we conflate with happiness, to our own detriment.
Politics & History

Burying NYC’s Forgotten Dead at Hart Island

A few miles off the coast of the Bronx is Hart Island, a potter's field where New York City's poor and unclaimed dead are buried.
Science & Technology

Why We Need to Start Listening to Insects

The study of wingbeat has come an incredibly long way and could lead to breakthroughs crucial for human populations facing insect-borne disease and pests.
Arts & Culture

How Victorians’ Fear of Starvation Created Our Christmas Lore

One scholar sees more in the Christmas food of authors like Charles Dickens—English national identity and class.

Arts & Culture

Illustration from "The Nights of Straparola" (1894)

The Invention of the Passive Fairy Tale Heroine

European fairy tales featured bold, independent female characters—until the Reformation forced shifts in cultural attitudes towards women.
Charlotte Salomon, gouache from Life? or Theater?

The Mystery behind Charlotte Salomon’s Groundbreaking Art

Before she was killed by Nazis, Charlotte Salomon created a unique, genre-bending artwork that may have also been a confession to a murder.
ENOCH in Space

An Ancient Egyptian Funerary Vessel Heads to Outer Space

Tavares Strachan's “Enoch” was launched into space on December 3rd, 2018. It's the latest in a long line of artworks inspired by Egyptian canopic jars.

Columns

The Knightscope K5 Security Robot

Do Security Robots Signal the Death of Public Space?

A security robot targets the homeless, raising questions about whether private companies can expand their security detail to public spaces like sidewalks.
A computer screen reflected in glasses

To Cope with Digital Distraction, Embrace Digital Neurodiversity

The internet is changing our brains. Our columnist suggests that maybe this isn't such a bad thing.
A contraption used to extract the silk from a spider

The Tangled History of Weaving with Spider Silk

Spider silk is as strong as steel and as light as a feather, but attempts to industrialize its production have gotten stuck, so to speak.

According to one psychologist, we’re inundated with ways to pursue pleasure, which we conflate with happiness, to our own detriment.

Teaching Happiness

Politics & Government

A Canadian flag with a pot leaf at its center

How Big Will Canada’s Legal Cannabis Market Be?

With recreational marijuana use now legal across Canada, companies are jockeying for market share while bureaucracies struggle to make estimates.
The dedication ceremony of the Statue of Unity in Gujarat, India.

The New Meaning of Monuments

Huge monuments to national pride are regaining popularity. One scholar suggests this might also indicate a larger cultural shift.
Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai toast during Nixon's 1972 visit to China

How Nixon Paved the Way for Trump

Richard Nixon's voters had a lot in common with Trump's, especially in their idealization of the self-sufficient, independent American businessperson.

Economics

Nosferatu

Marxferatu: Teaching Marx with Vampires

For a younger generation trying to understand Marxism, the best way in may be: vampirism.

Can Universal Basic Income Achieve Economic Security?

A wealthy country like the United States needs a solution for improving the supply and fairness of work overall. Is universal basic income the way to go?
solar city

Ecological Economics: An Oxymoron?

Mainstream economics has largely neglected to integrate ecological systems into its models. But the two disciplines don't have to be diametrically opposed.

Education

A classroom of bored children

Why School Is Boring

The average student is bored about 1/3 of the time. But that might have more to do with the kids' temperaments than with school itself.
Photo by _HealthyMond . on Unsplash

Autism Education, “Silent Sam,” and Regulating TV

New books and scholarship from UNC Press, The University of Texas Press, and Oxford University Press.
Fire Blazes At Iconic National Museum of Brazil

Brazil’s Museu Nacional Was More Than Just a Museum

Brazil's oldest natural history museum has burned down. The institution played a crucial part in creating Brazil's identity as a country.