West Virginia declared its independence from the secessionist state of Virginia in the middle of the Civil War and became the 35th state.

A mysterious kidney disease is striking down laborers across the world and climate change is making it worse. Meet the doctors who are trying to stop it.

Recently, the US denied Egypt nearly $96 million in international aid, as chastisement for the country's abysmal human rights record.

400 years of trying to solve the mystery of Prince Rupert's Drops, bizarrely hard beads of glass that have long captivated scientists.

The Natchitoches meat pie, a crimped half moon hiding a pocket of spiced meat, exemplifies “culinary place making."

One cold morning in 1953, Derek Bentley, a nineteen-year-old youth in the wrong place with the wrong words, was hanged for a murder he did not commit.

Is a world without borders an idea so crazy it just might work? Scholars weigh in on how open borders might solve the world's immigration problem.

Escape is an ancient word, escapism, a modern one, and the designation of a genre—“escape literature”—dates to the 1930s.

Well-researched stories from around the web that bridge the gap between news and scholarship. Brought to you each Tuesday from the editors of JSTOR Daily.

Does our technology help us deal with disaster? Or does it put us at risk by creating the illusion that we are immune from disaster?