Lowell’s Forgotten House Mothers
As vital to the success of industrial New England as the mill girls who toiled in the factories were the women who oversaw their lodging.
How to be a Modern Autocrat
In the twenty-first century, dictators are less likely than their predecessors to use violence to suppress dissent, cultivating instead “informational autocracies.”
Eulalie Mandeville’s Fortune in Court Records
Court records can function as a kind of archive for those without any other paper trail in history: free people of color and the enslaved.
The US Army as a Slaveholding Institution
Until the Civil War, US Army officers relied on enslaved servants even while serving in “free states.”
Hocktide: A Medieval Fest of Flirtation and Finances
The springtime holiday of Hocktide not only allowed villagers to cross social boundaries in the name of fun, it helped them raise funds for nonsecular needs.
Far Out: Why Don’t We Believe in UFOs?
Is it scientific impossibility or simply human ego that stops us from entertaining the idea of extraterrestrial visitation?
The Popularity and Politics of Pedestrianism
The sport of competitive walking touched on social concerns such as debt and poverty, fitness and fame, but it also found support in the temperance movement.
Joseph McCarthy in Wheeling, West Virginia: Annotated
Senator Joseph McCarthy built his reputation on fear-mongering, smear campaigns, and falsehoods about government employees and their associates.
Reinventing Vacation in Japan
In the late nineteenth century, Japan adopted Western-style vacation, but not everyone was on board with the new leisure practices.