Racial Violence as Impetus for the Great Migration
Historians traditionally point to economic and social conditions as the primary causes for the Great Migration, but racist hate crimes played a role as well.
Climate Change Turns Cute Birds into Brain-Eating Zombies
European great tits kill migratory pied flycatchers over nesting sites. The warming weather is to blame.
When Jazz Was a Public Health Crisis
In the 1920s, jazz music was thought to cause physical illness or even disability.
Ice, Measles, and Genocide
Well-researched stories from BBC, Nature, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Socialist Sci-Fi Reimagined the Future
The 1960 East German film The Silent Star provided a significant cautionary tale for the Cold War era.
Protecting Food’s Wild Relatives
The wild ancestors of coffee and other vital crops are at risk, leaving much of the world's food supply vulnerable to catastrophe.
Cutex Hooked Americans on Manicures
How a company that started off selling cuticle remover convinced American woman to paint their nails.
The Man Behind the USA’s Decision to Build the Bomb
FDR's "czar of research," an electrical engineer named Vannevar Bush, was working on an atomic bomb months before Pearl Harbor.
Did Black Rebellion Win the Civil War?
Historians are giving credence to W.E.B. DuBois's assertion that enslaved workers coordinated a general strike, which helped end the Civil War.
How Offshore Oil Exploration Affects Marine Life
Offshore oil and gas exploration in the Atlantic Ocean will involve seismic blasts, which may be harmful to whales and marine mammals.