Nicholas Black Elk

Wounded Knee and the Myth of the Vanished Indian

The story of the 1890 massacre was often about the end of Native American resistance to US expansion. But that’s not how everyone told it.
Saint George Defeating the Dragon by Johann König, c. 1630

How Saint George’s Dragon Got Its Wings

As time went on, the dragons in Russian iconography slowly became more Western in style—just like Russia itself.
Burning of an 80 ft. cross by the KKK, 1925

How 1920s Catholic Students Fought the Ku Klux Klan

There are few traces today of college students' resistance to anti-Catholic threats, but the ones that remain are powerful.
Emma and Charles Darwin

Darwin in Love

Charles Darwin, who of all people should have known better, married his first cousin. Did his love for Emma color his later works?
A Valentine's Day card from 1912 depicting Cupid

Why Cupid Rules Valentine’s Day

The rascally cherub has been part of Valentine's Day lore since Chaucer’s time.
Madame Sul-Te-Wan (left) in Maid of Salem, 1937

Madame Sul-Te-Wan’s Forgotten Brilliant Career

The mysteriously named Madame Sul-Te-Wan was the first black actress to land a Hollywood studio contract.
Francesca Woodman, Untitled photograph, circa 1975-1978. Gelatin silver print.

Photographer Francesca Woodman’s Haunting Dissolutions

Woodman's imagery engaged with architectural and natural landscapes that were themselves in a state of change and decay.
A Russian poster criticizing alcohol abuse.

The Politics of Drinking in Revolutionary Russia

To leaders, the ideal Soviet worker should be sober. Actual workers had other thoughts.
Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman: Everything Is Political

An interview with the Nobel prize-winning economist on what to do about the “zombie ideas” that animate contemporary political discourse.
3 boys hanging out outside laughing

Black English Matters

People who criticize African American Vernacular English don't see that it shares grammatical structures with more "prestigious" languages.