The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began during World War II to prevent the spread of malaria to troops stationed in the South.

Scientific racism. Paternity tests. And mass tattooing, just in case of nuclear attack.

Does it explain why we’re having so much trouble sleeping?

Science fiction offers readers a way to rethink social dilemmas.

Flaunting a massive collection of books did not start with work-from-home videoconferences.

German expressionism--imported to Hollywood by Jewish exiles--brought a lasting tradition of shadows, duality, and mirroring to mainstream American cinema.

Archaeologists have found that snack bars called tabernae fed much of the city in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius.

“The idea that the federal government would be providing emergency relief and emergency work was extraordinary,” one sociologist said. “And people liked it.”

The charivari (or shivaree) was a ritual in which people on the lower rungs of a community called out neighbors who violated social and sexual norms.