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.

The singer, actor, and activist Paul Robeson had a spectacular rise and then a stunning fall brought on by the Cold War's pathologizing of dissent.

Fish intelligence? Yes, many studies have documented the ability of fish to learn from their environment. Fish exposed to a more complicated environment have an edge in learning.

Referendums have a way of turning everyone into a self-proclaimed political expert. But does giving a population the chance to directly weigh in on a specific issue lead to a more informed voting public?

A miniseries directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder finally has its U.S. premier 45 years later and reminds us of the phenomenon of this great German director.

For most of American history, Washington’s Birthday was a really big deal, but, as scholar Barry Schwartz explains, that’s changed a lot since the middle of the twentieth century.

Poems by African-American poets, including Gwendolyn Brooks, Kwame Dawes, Rita Dove, Langston Hughes, Tyehimba Jess, Kevin Young, and more.

Spiritualism was one of the nineteenth-century's most successful religious innovations, a movement of individuals who yearned for a religion which united mysticism and science.

Shaker communities seem to have appealed to a lot of women because they offered a respite where their work was honored and respected.

Alexander Pushkin is known as the quintessential Russian writer, but he took particular inspiration from his African great-grandfather, General Abraham Petrovitch Gannibal.