Our Best Stories of 2019
Tweety bird linguistics, tiny purses, Beowulf's monsters, and the evolution of beauty.
Who Survives a Political Scandal?
For a public figure, a scandal is a predictable hazard of the trade. What's less predictable, however, is who survives one.
The Oneida Community Moves to the OC
The Oneida Community's Christian form of collectivism was transported to California in the 1880s, when the original Oneida Community fell apart.
Tsarist Russia’s Feminist Intelligentsia
In the context of Russia's patriarchal autocracy, its intelligentsia was surprisingly feminist, as Vera Podorovskaya's life illustrates.
The Truth about “Caveman Courtship”
Cartoon stories about early humans bear a striking resemblance to many popular uses of evolutionary psychology today.
The Reindeer Games
In 1907, the U.S. Reindeer Service was organized as part of an effort to domesticate the animals...and Inupiat Eskimos.
Lawrence Lessig: How to Repair Our Democracy
Law professor and one-time presidential hopeful Lawrence Lessig on campaign finance, gerrymandering, and the electoral college.
![Travels through Virginia. [From Theodor de Bry's 'America', Vol. I, 1590, after a drawing of John White].](https://daily.jstor.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/the_construction_of_america_in_the_eyes_of_the_english_1050x700-600x400.jpg)
The Construction of America, in the Eyes of the English
In Theodor de Bry’s illustrations for Thomas Harriot’s Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, the Algonquin are made to look like the Irish. Surprise.
This Isn’t the First Baby Bust
And it's unlikely to be the last. One scholar looks at the factors that contributed to the increase in childlessness at the turn of the twentieth century.
The Highest Flood in Italy This Century
Recent flooding in Venice has revived memories of a record-setting 1966 flood, which sparked an international rescue program for art and architecture.