How Insurance Companies Used Bad Science to Discriminate
In 1881, Prudential announced that insurance policies held by black adults would be worth one-third less than the same plans held by whites.
The Midterms That Changed America
In 1994, Republicans swept the midterms and Newt Gingrich became Speaker of the House. His “Contract with America” was both polarizing and transformative.
When a Woman Was “King”
Maria Theresa, the King of Hungary, ruled over the "accidental" Austro-Hungarian Empire, overseeing social, administrative, fiscal, and religious reforms.
Ectoplasm and the Last British Woman Tried for Witchcraft
Spiritualist medium Helen Duncan was photographed emitting ectoplasm, supposedly proof of her ability to contact the dead.
Women’s Rights in the Early Republic
The U.S.A.'s founders focused on the rights of white men to vote, own property, and govern. The idea that women should have similar rights came later.
The Bizarre Victorian Diaries of Cullwick and Munby
Arthur Munby was an upper-class man of letters who "collected" working class women, including his servant Hannah Cullwick, whom he married in 1873.
War and Pest Control
Since World War I, the connections between pest control and war have been scientific, technological, institutional, and metaphorical.
Preserving South America’s Uncontacted Tribes
There are still tribes living in the Amazon rain forest who carry on their traditional way of life and rebuff attempts at contact.
How Jack the Ripper Became a Legend
In 1880s London, an anti-prostitution campaign, anti-immigration feelings, and a deep class divide set the scene for the Jack the Ripper media frenzy.
An Affordable Radio Brought Nazi Propaganda Home
In the 1930s, Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels led the charge to create a radio cheap enough that even workers could own one.