Julian Hawthorne and Margaret Fuller

A Literary Hit Job: Julian Hawthorne Takes Down Margaret Fuller

Fuller’s works, and works about her, sold very well until Hawthorne cast her as a “fallen woman” in his biography of his parents.
An illustration of Star Trek's USS Enterprise in warp drive

Is Star Trek’s Warp Drive Possible?

The concept of the warp drive is currently at odds with everything we know to be true about physics.
Preparatory sketches for a pittura infamante or shame painting by Andrea del Sarto

Punitive Portraits of the Renaissance

The Italian legal tradition called for the public display of a humiliating—but recognizable—portrait of the disgraced person.
Marguerite Agniel, c. 1928

Religion of the Devil, Philosophy of the Coiled Serpent

In yoga’s early days in the United States, skeptics warned it would lead people (e.g., women) of good faith and standing into paganism and ill repute.
An illustration from Winsor McCay's comic strip consisting of 5 panels, featuring a large moon and a little boy.

The Cutting-Edge Cartoons of Winsor McCay

A prolific, meticulous artist, McCay created characters and storyscapes that inspired generations of cartoonists and animators.
Turmeric in a glass jar, as seen from above

Turmeric, Wrestling Spiders, and Early Christians

Well-researched stories from Undark, The Conversation, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Pencil sketch of artist Elena Guro

Elena Guro and the Cubo-Futurism Group

Informed by the philosophies of the Futurists, Guro's painting and poetry represented an era of experimentation and innovation in Russian art.
A couple listening to their hi-fi system in a specially converted music room, 1974.

Making Music Male

How did record collecting and stereophile culture come to exclude women as consumers and experts?
Black and white photograph of a man being arrested by the police.

Policing Radicals: Britain vs. the United States

British policing of Communism before and into the Cold War has often been compared favorably with America’s witch-hunt hysteria. But was it really better?

The Tricky Sentimentality of Lan Cao’s Monkey Bridge

The Vietnamese American literary classic undermines the readers’ expectations of a redemptive narrative of immigration and memory.