19th century lithograph telling the story of the 1763 attack by the Paxton Gang against the local tribe of Susquehannock peoples in Pennsylvania

Colonial Civility and Rage on the American Frontier

A 1763 massacre by colonial settlers exposed the irreconcilable contradictions of conquest by people concerned with civility.
Donna Summer, 1976

The Year The Grammys Honored Disco

In 1980, The Grammys gave disco its own category, but the genre was already receding into invisibility.
Kazakhstan against a backdrop of bitcoin

Even in Kazakhstan, Bitcoin Can’t Escape Geopolitics

People in Kazakhstan have been protesting energy prices, and met with violence by the government. What does Bitcoin have to do with it?
Aerial view of Bangalore city in south India

Bangalore’s Green Belt Fifty Years On

Or, why the best laid plans of urban design sometimes go awry.
A person snowmobiling in Gifford Pinchot National Forest, WA, 1987

A Brief History of Snowmobiling

Snowmobiles were invented around the same time as wheeled transportation was becoming a robust industry.
Alpine Chickweed

How Does the Warming Arctic Impact Plants?

For flowering plants in the Arctic, cold temperatures don't mean death. But warmer temperatures might.
Sing Sing prison, with warden T. M. Osborne and two other men, c. 1915

Were Early American Prisons Similar to Today’s?

A correctional officer’s history of 19th century prisons and modern-day parallels. From Sing Sing to suicide watch, torture treads a fine line.
Illustration of Cassava

Plant of the Month: Cassava

Cassava can grow in hot climates with little rainfall. It may be the "root crop of the century."
Animal magnetism

Mesmerizing Labor

The man who introduced mesmerism to the US was a slave-owner from Guadeloupe, where planters were experimenting with “magnetizing” their enslaved people.
A bowl of soup

Uselessness, Fake Soup, and That One Song

Well-researched stories from Psyche, Atlas Obscura, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.