Enjoying a Music Festival

From Saturnalia to Coachella

Art, music, religious, and seasonal festivals have been a part of human life since prehistory. How have they changed as society has changed?
Mount Vernon Fourth of July naturalization ceremony

Celebrating Immigration on the Fourth of July

For many immigrants to the U.S. in the late 19th century, July 4th was deeply significant: Their own home countries were fighting for independence.
Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter and the Meaning of Malaise

In July of 1979, Jimmy Carter delivered a presidential address that was more like a sermon, urging America to reflect upon its meaning and purpose.
River Basin archaeologists

The River Basin Surveys Preserved American Prehistory

Between 1945 and 1969, archaeologists hurriedly surveyed over 20,000 prehistorical sites before the Mississippi River Basin was flooded by dams.
Jessie Chaffee Florence in Ecstasy

Expecting the Unexpected: Researching Florence in Ecstasy

Debut novelist Jessie Chaffee on how she researched her critically-acclaimed new novel Florence in Ecstasy, with a little help from JSTOR.
Poison Ivy leaves

How Poison Ivy Works

Where poison ivy comes from, why it gives some people such terrible reactions, and why—unfortunately for hikers and gardeners—its future is bright.
Cynthia Nixon

Why Sex and The City is Still in Style

Sex and the City was on television from 1998-2004, and still holds cultural cachet today. But does the actual programming still hold up?
A pair of tweezers removing a tick

A Brief History of Lyme Disease

Lyme disease is seeing an upswing. But the-now widespread condition was not formally described until 1977, based on a case in Old Lyme, Connecticut.
ominous smartphone

How Pleasure Lulls Us into Accepting Surveillance

The domestication of surveillance technology has caused big legal and ethical implications for security on both a personal and a social scale.
anti-abolitionist cartoon

How Antebellum Christians Justified Slavery

After Emancipation, some Southern Protestants refused to revise their proslavery views. In their minds, slavery had been divinely sanctioned.