How the Elite Learned to Seem Less Elite
British elites once signaled status through high culture. Over time, pop culture and everyday leisure became part of the picture.
A Brief History of Women’s Underwear
The University of Wyoming’s Historic Clothing Collection offers a revealing look beneath the fashions of the past.
How America Reinvented Yogurt
The journey from immigrant staple to diet snack reveals how yogurt took on a distinctly American identity.
The Rise and Fall of the Public Sandbox
A nineteenth-century experiment in children's play helped reshape American cities—and later fell out of favor.
The Global Rise of Boys’ Love Fandom
From Mexico City fan conventions to Thai TV dramas, Japanese queer media culture is evolving in unexpected ways.
Equine-Assisted Therapy: But What Do the Horses Think?
An emerging critique examines the moral and cultural assumptions behind horse-based interventions.
The Power of Placemaking
Why the social, political, and emotional dimensions of public spaces matter, and how people themselves play a central role in creating them.
Bread, Circuses, Baths: Bathing in Rome, the Public Way
By the fourth century CE, Rome had some 856 privately owned public baths, the grounds of which served as civic gardens adorned with sculptures.
Greening Philly’s Neglected Lots
Spearheaded by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, an urban beautification program transformed neighborhoods in the city of brotherly love.