The Bawdy House Riots of 1668
Though so-called bawdy house riots were common in seventeenth-century London, the disorder of 1668 revealed the city’s deep political and religious resentments.
The Sovereignty of the Latter-day Saints
Less about morality than about rights, the Mormon War of 1858 hinged on the issue of polygamy, pitting a Utah community against federal authorities.
The Curious History of Competitive Eating
The annals of competitive eating contests are full of more than just hot dogs.
The Shrewd Business Logic of Immigrant Cooks
Savvy observers, immigrant restaurateurs operate as amateur anthropologists who analyze their potential customers to determine how to best attract them.
Life, Reality, and Eating Plastic
Well-researched stories from Big Think, Nautilus, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
“The Crocodile,” Dostoevsky’s Weirdest Short Story
Why being eaten by a crocodile named Little Karl is really a lesson in the dangers of foreign capital.
Economics in Ancient Greece
The modern term “economics” comes from the Greek word “oikonomia,” but the ancient Greeks had a very different way of thinking about material life.
Policing the Holocaust in Paris
Unlike in the rest of Nazi-occupied Europe, the arrest of Jewish people was largely in the hands of ordinary policemen in France, especially in Paris.
Writing Online Fiction in China
Many amateur “fan fiction” writers on the Chinese internet use real history as a canvas for time-travel stories that often break the fourth wall.
Hi, Jai Alai
Once popular across the United States, jai alai lives on in American sport culture mostly thanks to its history as a legal option for gambling.