Drinking at the cafe

When is Public Drinking Cool?

The Wall Street Journal reports that property developers are pushing to allow public drinking on city streets, hoping to encourage a “lively atmosphere.”
Margarine ad

When Margarine Was Contraband

Protectionist laws favoring producers of butter meant that getting margarine in Wisconsin was no easy feat.
Student homelessness

Tackling Student Homelessness

College students are notoriously strapped for cash. For some, however, that youthful poverty becomes actual homelessness.
Clarence Darrow

How African Americans Supported Evolution in the 1925 Scopes Trial

Dayton, Tennessee has a new statue of Clarence Darrow, the evolutionist and criminal defense attorney of the 1925 Scopes “Monkey” Trial.
charlottesville syllabus: history of hate in america

Charlottesville Syllabus: Readings on the History of Hate in America

The history of racism and ethnic hate in America is long and deep. What are the cultural, economic, and political currents that led us here?
Chautauqua

The Forgotten Movement That Changed American Women’s Lives

Chatauquas changed the lives of Midwestern women between 1878 and 1900, setting the stage for new gender roles in the twentieth century.
Christy Matthewson

How Baseball Became a Profession

Sports historian Steven A. Riess writes that the process that transformed baseball into a high-paid profession began in the 1860s.
Alemany farmer's market, San Francisco, CA (2012)

The Wartime Origins of Farmers Markets

In 1943, the idea of a farmers market at which produce was sold directly to the customer was nearly unheard of, a relic of the distant past.
Atomic Bomb and Mushroom Cloud over Rural Landscape

How Do We Teach Children About Existential Threats?

In 1986, in the midst of the Cold War, psychologists set out to find answers about how to talk to kids about nuclear war.
Little girl reading a book at park

Is Your Kids’ Summer Reading Actually Helping Them?

Some studies have found that simply getting kids to pick up a book during the summer may not actually help that much. What actually works?