Why Ulysses S. Grant Was More Important Than You Think
Grant’s presidency is often overlooked, but his accomplishments around civil rights are getting more consideration from historians.
Was Modern Art Really a CIA Psy-Op?
The number of MoMA-CIA crossovers is highly suspicious, to say the least.
Pompeii Mania in the Era of Romanticism
Nothing appealed more perfectly to the Romantic sensibility than the mix of horror and awe evoked by a volcano erupting.
Why Black Women Joined the Communist Party
During the Great Depression, Communists took to the streets to fight racism, poverty, and injustice. Among them were Black women.
Surviving a Pandemic, in 1918
A century ago, Catholic nuns from Philadelphia recalled what it was like to tend to the needy and the sick during the great influenza pandemic of 1918.
Could Foreign Policy Stop Another Pandemic?
Diseases know no borders. International cooperation and solidarity, say scholars, are as essential as funding.
How Training Bras Constructed American Girlhood
In the twentieth century, advertisements for a new type of garment for preteen girls sought to define the femininity they sold.
The Protestant Astrology of Early American Almanacs
The wildly popular books helped people understand farming and health through the movement of the planets, in a way compatible with Protestantism.
The Study of Human Anatomy and the Corpses of Vienna
For cultural and geographical reasons, the city was a great place to find bodies to dissect. But there was also the matter of one well-connected doctor.