Origins of Child Protection
Legend has it that the campaign to save abused children in New York was driven by the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The truth is more complicated.
The Fatal Current: Electrocution as Progress?
The electric chair was promoted as civilized and at the same time imbued with the technological sublime, the mystery of electrical power harnessed by humans.
Why Did They Leave the Pueblos?
The Ancestral Puebloans were driven from their homes in the American Southwest by a combination of factors rather than a single cause.
Topsy-Turvy: Children in Adult Roles
The number of children acting like adults on stage reflects how conflicted nineteenth-century Anglo-Americans were about the definition of childhood.
The Highway and the Gap
The Pan-American Highway began a century ago with a vision of unfettered motor-vehicle access between Alaska and Tierra del Fuego. What happened to the dream?
The FBI and the Madams
J. Edgar Hoover saw the political effectiveness of cracking down on elite brothel madams—but not their clients—in New York City.
When Did Alchemy End?
Despite royal prohibition, transmutation efforts continued underground long after the widely accepted dates for their demise.
Ghosts of Landed Gentry, But Never the Ghosts of Serfs
Psychical researcher Harry Price combined the power of academic language with a cultural identity crisis to build a reputation as a “scientific” ghost-hunter.
Mussolini’s Colonial Inspiration
In its plans for the conquest of Eastern Europe, the Third Reich looked to the example set in Africa by Fascist Italy.
Asian South America
The migration of Asian people—from India, from China, from Japan—to South America and the Caribbean began as early as the sixteenth century.