How Tucson Enforced Its 1918 Mask Requirement
During the influenza pandemic, the Arizona city's police force fined and arrested people for not wearing face masks.
Britain’s World Police in Mandate Palestine
As colonized peoples challenged the imperial powers after World War I, British veterans were tapped to become a ruthless police force.
Who Were the Ladies of Llangollen?
Top hat connoisseurs, friends of princesses and poets, tchotchke models, dog lovers, cottage keepers...lesbians?
How People in the Depression Managed to Laugh
American popular culture flourished in the 1930s, despite the Great Depression. One thing that helped: artists being included in the New Deal.
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.