When Photography Wasn’t Art
Today, photography is commonly accepted as a fine art. But through much of the 19th century, it was an art world outcast.
Queering the Christian Experience
The queer theology of Marcella Althaus-Reid calls into question our understandings of gender, sexuality, power, and our desire for God.
How The New Republic Tried to Find Its Audience
In its early days, The New Republic tried many creative ways to rejuvenate its waning readership. Some were more successful than others.
What Did Idaho Have to Do With the Cold War?
The real life history behind the 1961 nuclear accident fictionalized in Andria Williams' The Longest Night.
The Cultural Expectations of Breastfeeding
Society constructs women’s bodies as sexual, but mothers’ bodies as asexual—a quandary that presents a dilemma for women who nurse in public.
Before KonMari and NotSorry, There Was the Samuel Smiles’ Guide to Self Help
Samuel Smiles' 1859 book, Self Help, offered a groundbreaking approach to self improvement.
Poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning Was Both a Celebrity and a Superfan
As celebrity culture developed in nineteenth-century England, authors were at turns celebrated and celebrators of artists they admired.
Understanding Andy Warhol’s “Screen Tests”
The "screen tests" can be viewed as an exploration of glamor and the gaze.
Why We Love to Learn Klingon: The Art of Constructed Languages
Constructed languages like Klingon excite us because they enable us to actively participate in foreign or "alien" cultures.
Why Do Some States Have Citizen Militias While Others Don’t?
The occupation of a wildlife refuge in Oregon and subsequent arrest of Ammon Bundy has once again drawn ...