A 19th century advertisement for fish glue

Isinglass; or, The Many Miracles of Fish Glue

Isinglass comes from the swim bladders of certain kinds of fish and can be found in everything from beer recipes to illuminated manuscripts. Ew? No way.
Covid 19 test tubes on pink background

Could Employers and States Mandate COVID-19 Vaccinations?

Here's what the courts have ruled.
Henry Ford

The Text That Stoked Modern Antisemitism

What's the history of the vicious The Protocols of the Elders of Zion?
Le Passage des Brisants à Hawaï

Did White People Really Revive Surfing?

Contrary to the widespread idea that white missionaries stamped out the sport, evidence suggests that Native Hawai‘ians never stopped surfing.
A protest during the Australian bicentenary

On Black Power in the Pacific

How the meaning of Blackness, and the social construction of race, varies across era and region.
John Frost and daughter listening to radio in their home. Tehama County, California

The People Who Thought Farmers Without Radios Were Rubes

In the 1920s, some people thought that the new invention of radio would make American farmers less "backward."
Tremolite asbestos from the Aure Valley, French Pyrenees

When Asbestos Was a Gift Fit for a King

File under: “don’t try this at home.”
A street during the plague in London

Plague and Protest Go Hand in Hand

Scholars of early modern England have shown how plague and protest are often correlated. The Black Death of 1348 laid the groundwork for the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, for example.
Coronavirus

A Science Reader for COVID-19

Covering concepts from spillover to virus mutation, this collection of free-to-access readings provides scientific context around the COVID-19 pandemic.
Silhouette of office lady using smartphone in city

Fake News: A Media Literacy Reading List

Compiled by graduate students in a 2016 course on “Activism and Digital Culture,” at University of Southern California.