Everyone in Pompeii Got Takeout, Too
Archaeologists have found that snack bars called tabernae fed much of the city in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius.
Martin Luther’s Monsters
Prodigies, or monsters, were opaque and flexible symbols that signaled that God was sending some message.
Walter Rodney, Guerrilla Intellectual
Walter Rodney’s radical thought and activism led to his eventual killing by a bomb in Guyana, in 1980.
One Parallel for the Coronavirus Crisis? The Great Depression
“The idea that the federal government would be providing emergency relief and emergency work was extraordinary,” one sociologist said. “And people liked it.”
Ye Olde Morality-Enforcement Brigades
The charivari (or shivaree) was a ritual in which people on the lower rungs of a community called out neighbors who violated social and sexual norms.
Baseball History and Rural America
Baseball's creation myth is bunk, and historians have shown how important cities were to the game's development. But it was still a rural passion.
Dean Mahomet: Travel Writer, Border Crosser
The author of what is considered the first English-language book by an Indian writer was neither a rebel nor an accommodationist.
The Soup of British Colonialism
Mulligatawny soup started as a simple South Indian broth but was changed to appeal to British palates.
The Surprising Backstory of Victory Gardens
In World War I, the Victory Garden movement encouraged people to grow their own food to conserve home-front supplies. But kids' gardens had planted the roots.
Joan of Arc, for Fascists and Feminists
As Catholics mark the centennial of her canonization, it’s clear that there is more than one Joan of Arc. How did that happen?