The Long History of Comet Phobia
Even the invention of the telescope couldn't convince all people to put aside superstitions about comets.
Rural Rent Wars of the 1840s
Anti-rent rebellions in New York State helped to shatter the two-party political system in the nineteenth century.
Police Versus the Chicano Moratorium March of 1970
Despite police violence against Chicano demonstrators in Los Angeles, the movement was not deterred.
Suppressing Native American Voters
South Dakota has been called "the Mississippi of the North" for its long history of making voting hard for Native Americans.
Women’s Clubs and the “Lost Cause”
Women's clubs were popular after the Civil War among white and Black women. But white clubwomen used their influence to ingrain racist curriculum in schools.
Isinglass; or, The Many Miracles of Fish Glue
Isinglass comes from the swim bladders of certain kinds of fish and can be found in everything from beer recipes to illuminated manuscripts. Ew? No way.
The Text That Stoked Modern Antisemitism
What's the history of the vicious The Protocols of the Elders of Zion?
Did White People Really Revive Surfing?
Contrary to the widespread idea that white missionaries stamped out the sport, evidence suggests that Native Hawai‘ians never stopped surfing.
On Black Power in the Pacific
How the meaning of Blackness, and the social construction of race, varies across era and region.
The People Who Thought Farmers Without Radios Were Rubes
In the 1920s, some people thought that the new invention of radio would make American farmers less "backward."