Well-researched stories from FiveThirtyEight, Aeon, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

The president of Mexico who finally issued the decree ending slavery was of African descent himself.

The story of the 1890 massacre was often about the end of Native American resistance to U.S. expansion. But that's not how everyone told it.

As time went on, the dragons in Russian iconography slowly became more Western in style—just like Russia itself.

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

Charles Darwin, who of all people should have known better, married his first cousin. Did his love for Emma color his later works?

The rascally cherub has been part of Valentine's Day lore since Chaucer’s time.

The mysteriously named Madame Sul-Te-Wan was the first black actress to land a Hollywood studio contract.

Woodman's imagery engaged with architectural and natural landscapes that were themselves in a state of change and decay.

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