It’s not easy to measure a mountain. Mount Everest's height has been known since the middle of the nineteenth century, but how did they figure it out with no altimeters or GPS?

The day-long Purim festival was transformed into a week-long carnival in the Dutch Caribbean colonies, as a rowdy celebration of inversion celebrated liberations of all kinds.

Visit your local public library today and you may find rows of kids playing computer games, or even a couple of Xboxes. Gaming at the library is a tradition that goes back to the 1850s.

When it came time to describe what they saw under microscopes, Victorians couldn’t help but perceive a real-life fairyland.

After World War II, the United States was battling the Soviet Union for cultural influence. In divided Berlin, the tactics included lavish consumer goods exhibitions.

What would happen if the Earth's magnetic poles flipped? The poles have a long history of switching from North to South and back again. 

Would today's online, social media-based friendships look familiar to the letter-writing friends of earlier centuries, when epistolary friendships were also common?

Researchers in England think connecting British National Parks to the “Internet of Things” could help better protect the national treasures at lower costs with improved experience for nature-lovers.

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

Is a large publicly-trade company responsible only for making its shareholders the most money possible? Or is it also responsible for making the world a better place?