Grave Robbing, Black Cemeteries, and the American Medical School
In the 19th century, students at American medical schools stole the corpses of recently-buried African Americans to be used for dissection.
Why Yemen Suffers in Silence
Yemen is suffering a major humanitarian crisis. How did the country get to such a precarious state, and why aren't Americans paying more attention?
The Stolen Children of Argentina
Between 1976 and 1983, some 30,000 Argentines were "disappeared," their children seized by the junta. The Abuelas—the Grandmothers—of the Plaza refuse to forget.
What Life Was Like During the London Blitz
During WWII, 150,000+ people sought shelter in London's Tube stations each night. Over time, the various stations developed their own mini-governments.
The Romanticization of the Mediterranean
The idea that the disparate nations bordering the Mediterranean Sea represent a single region is the product of the nineteenth century.
The Bisbee Deportations
According to one scholar, the 1917 deportation in Bisbee, AZ wasn't "about labor relations or race or gender: it was about all of them."
Trial by Combat? Trial by Cake!
The medieval tradition of deciding legal cases by appointing champions to fight to the death endured through 1817, unlike its tastier cousin.
The Woman Who Refused to Leave a Whites-Only Streetcar
In 1854, Elizabeth Jennings rode the streetcar of her choice, in an early civil rights protest that led to desegregating public transportation in NYC.
The Return of Socialism
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has catapulted the term "Democratic socialist" back into the spotlight. What does it actually mean to be a socialist?
Birthright Citizenship Basics
Birthright citizenship, which holds that individuals are citizens of the nation in which they are born, was codified with the 14th Amendment in 1868.