John Carl Warnecke and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy discuss plans for Lafayette Square and the New Executive Office Building in September 1962.

What Makes a “Beautiful” Federal Building?

A new draft executive order requiring classical architecture in government buildings negates principles established during the Kennedy administration.
Lawyer Inez Milholland, wearing white cape, seated on white horse at the National American Woman Suffrage Association parade, March 3, 1913, Washington, D.C.

Why Did the Suffragists Wear Medieval Costumes?

Medieval costume was a standard feature of US women’s suffrage parades, often with one participant designated as Joan of Arc.
A book opened to a chapter on Tumeric

Plant of the Month: Turmeric

The plant’s golden color has inspired a long—and potentially deadly—fascination.
Voting stickers on a table

Would Formerly Incarcerated People Vote Democratic?

Conventional wisdom says that Republicans don't want to give ex-felons voting rights because they'll end up voting for Democrats. But is this true?
A man wearing a medical mask

Virus Paradox, Men at Work, and Electronic Chores

Well-researched stories from The Atlantic, Harvard Business Review, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Inside the Rothko Chapel

How the Rothko Chapel Creates Spiritual Space

Fourteen colossal black paintings by the modern artist Mark Rothko are installed in an octagonal room in Texas. Visitors say the chapel brings them peace.
Women line up to vote in a municipal election, Boston, Massachusetts, December 11, 1888.

New Jersey Let (Some) Women Vote from 1776 to 1807

Historians Judith Apter Klinghoffer and Lois Elkis argue that this wasn't oversight. New Jersey legislators knew exactly what they were doing.
A 100 dollar banknote with medical mask.

The True Costs of Managing Pandemics

The fear of the next global virus isn't just media indulging in catastrophizing; it's a collective concern for global economic and political health.
Quaker tobacco farmers in Barbados

The Invention of the “Healthy” Caribbean

Europeans used to believe that "bad air" caused diseases, so they distrusted the Caribbean's air quality and land features like swamps.
A Reading from Homer by Lawrence Alma Tadema, 1885

How Do We Know That Epic Poems Were Recited from Memory?

Scholars once doubted that pre-literate peoples could ever have composed and recited poems as long as the Odyssey. Milman Parry changed that.