Frig goddess

Should We Thank Frig it’s Friday?

The Anglo-Saxon goddess Frig has often been cited as the origin of the word Friday, but one scholar questions whether such a deity ever existed.
Bedridden King Charles VI

The French King Who Believed He Was Made of Glass

King Charles VI of France was the most exalted representative of a rash of "Glass Men," who appeared throughout Europe between the 15th and 17th centuries.
Xi Jinping leader step down

How To Make a Leader Step Down

President Xi Jinping of China recently managed to abolish term limits. What compels some leaders to discard the rules of the very systems that led them to power?
Augustine Addiction memoir

The New Sameness of Leslie Jamison’s Addiction Memoir

Leslie Jamison's The Recovering is self-aware about being the same old story, recalling the redemption narratives of Rousseau and St. Augustine.
Black Panther Double Consciousness

Black Panther and Double-Consciousness

Double identity, present in both Marvel's Black Panther and in the critical race theory of double-consciousness, enables black American viewers to see their two identities played out on screen.
Family reading children's book

In Children’s Books, How Much Reality is Too Much?

While children will undoubtedly counter myriad difficulties as they navigate life--and it does them a disservice to pretend otherwise--exposure is a double edged sword.
Molten lava erupts from Eyjafjallajokull, Fimmvorduhals, Iceland

Volcanoes, Climate Change, and The Birth of Christianity

The massive, deadly eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eldgjá in 10th century brought climate change and Christianity to the island colony.
JSTOR Daily Suggested Readings

Gun Norms, Jolts of Joy, and Life on Mars

Well-researched stories from around the web that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
early microscopes

The Evolution of the Microscope

The first compound microscopes date to 1590, but it was the Dutch Antony Van Leeuwenhoek in the mid-seventeenth century who first used them to make discoveries.
Alaskan woman and child

Alaska’s Unique Civil Rights Struggle

A generation before Rosa Parks, a young Alaska Native woman was arrested for sitting in the "whites only" section of a Nome, Alaska movie theater.