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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Undercover Abolitionists of the 18th Century
Since many people considered them an off-putting radical sect, some Quaker abolitionists worked behind the scenes to eradicate slavery.
The Case for Reparations Is Nothing New
In fact, Black activists and civil rights leaders have been advocating for compensation for the trauma and cost of slavery for centuries.
The Sinatra Movie Some Blamed for JFK’s Death
In the 1950s, Frank Sinatra starred in Suddenly, a movie that happens to depict a plot against the President.
The Latent Racism of the Better Homes in America Program
How Better Homes in America—a collaboration between Herbert Hoover and the editor of a conservative women’s magazine—promoted idealized whiteness.
The Chemist Whose Work Was Stolen from Her
The Black scientist Alice Ball helped develop a treatment for leprosy in the early twentieth century. But someone else took the credit.