Remembering Emmett Till in Song
The murder of Emmett Till has been memorialized in song by such artists as Langston Hughes and Bob Dylan.
The Female Husband is So Eighteenth Century
Henry Fielding's novel, a fictional account of the life of Charles Hamilton, conflates vagrancy with sexual, gender, and religious deviance.
Black Soldier Desertion in the Civil War
The reasons Black Union soldiers left their army during the Civil war were varied, with poor pay, family needs and racism among them.
Grifting In The 18th Century: The Grift Remains the Same
When faking an identity, it helps to choose something foreign to your audience.
Only Love Can Break Your Heart?
Broken heart syndrome, or Takotsubo syndrome, is thought to be caused by stress. It seems to be on the increase during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fact-Based Courts, but What Facts?
US courts operate as "informationally disabled" institutions that may lack (or intentionally exclude) important facts when making complex legal decisions.
When Harvard Students Couldn’t Get Warm
The early heating systems of New England kept Harvard students cold until the early twentieth century.
Jim Crow’s Civil Defense Plans
The first head of the Federal Civil Defense Administration planned on maintaining segregation in bomb shelters, and in the post-nuclear future.
Canopy Gaps Define Growth in the Forest
Gaps in the forest canopy can reveal important information, and result in regeneration.
Donald Goines, Detroit’s Crime Writer Par Excellence
The writer used hard-boiled fiction as a wide lens to accurately capture the widescreen disparity of Black life in the 1970s.