Well-researched stories from Smithsonian Magazine, Noema, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

An interview with Tyler S. Sprague, a historian of the built environment whose work depends on multidisciplinarity and a deep knowledge of structure and materials.

The introduction of the horse to North America by the Spanish transformed the lives of the Indigenous peoples of the Plains in decidedly mixed ways.

The city of Pontianak is notable for sharing its name with a vengeful folkloric revenant known by various monikers across the Malay Archipelago.

In the late 1800s, German American singing festivals united German immigrant communities and brought new kinds of cultural activities to the United States.

Seventeenth-century science was so competitive that Christiaan Huygens used a cipher to conceal his Saturn observations when sharing them with interlocutors.

Computer simulations reveal the unlikely birth of a world-changing technology nearly 6,000 years ago.

Take a moment to contemplate the history and complexity of Independence Day, American Style.

Observers have long hailed Japan’s aptitude for cultural synthesis. Is this characterization warranted, or does it reflect a collective fantasy about exceptionalism?

Well-researched stories from Public Books, The Conversation, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.