Empty cable cars hang over a ski slope that has had to be closed because of a lack of snow, on January 30, 2020 in Minamiuonuma, Japan.

Ski Resorts and Climate Change

The effects of climate change are already being felt by some ski resorts, but filling in the slopes with artificial snow may not be a good solution.
Tiger Woods of the United States plays his shot from the 15th tee during the final round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on November 15, 2020 in Augusta, Georgia.

What Happens to Brands When Celebrity Endorsers Are ‘Canceled?’

Take the case of Tiger Woods’ whose reputation took a nosedive after his many affairs came to light in November 2009.
Sitdown strikers in the Fisher body plant factory number three. Flint, Michigan, 1937

The Flint Sit-Down Strike, From the Inside

Americans in "The Great Resignation" and "Strikevember" are the heirs of the 1936-1937 sit-down strike by auto workers in Flint, Michigan.
Walmart employee Clara Martinez stocks the shelves at a Walmart store on February 19, 2015 in Miami, Florida.

How Retail Sales Became “Unskilled” Work

There's a big difference between how salespeople in traditional department stores and big-box retailers interact with their customers.
This statue in front of US Steel's Edgar Thomson Works in Braddock, PA depicts Joe Magarac, a mythical steelworker deriving from local legend.

Joe Magarac, a Boss’s Idea of a Folk Hero?

The Paul Bunyan of the steel industry never went on strike. He was too tied up working the twenty-four-hour shifts that unions were fighting.
An advertisement for Eagle Pencil Co's fine arts lead pencils, c. 1870-1900

Why You’ll Never Get Lead Poisoning from a Pencil

Some of the greatest moments in international pencil history involve discoveries of a different mineral.
Beachgoers at Myrtle Beach, SC

How the Beaches of the South Got There

The government funded beach construction for private developers, which displaced Black farmers from their coastal lands.
A recumbent bicycle in 1935

Who Killed the Recumbent Bicycle?

How a dominant technology became viewed as the only option, with no need for better-designed competitors.
Illustration: Branding Iron by Henry Rasmusen, c. 1937

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_Rasmusen,_Branding_Iron,_c._1937,_NGA_21119.jpg

A Fistful of Data: Information and the Cattle Industry

Beef barons needed cowboys less and bookkeepers more as the nineteenth century wore on.
A cowboy pulling a sleigh of gifts

The Rise and Fall of Montana’s Christmas-Tree Harvest

Douglas firs weren't great for lumber, but they once made the small town of Eureka the Christmas-tree capital of America.