A yellow ribbon on a red background

The Many Meanings of Yellow Ribbons

The strange and convoluted history of why yellow ribbons became a symbol of the Gulf War in the 1990s.
Boxes of Cracker Jacks

The Invention of the Giveaway

The appeal of the free gift has always been, for the consumer, about the eternal dream of getting something for nothing.
Kessab, a town in Syria on the border of Turkey

Turkey’s “Outsider” Threats

Ever since it was founded as a republic in 1923, Turkey has struggled with its so-called Kurdish issue.
Nooses from the Norrmalmstorg robbery in 1973.

Stockholm Syndrome

What really happened that summer day in 1973? And what does it reveal about our cultural attitudes toward violence?
Mahatma Gandhi receiving a donation in a train compartment, 1940

Mahatma Gandhi, Master Mediator

Gandhi's legacy helped shape independent India, if in sometimes indirect ways.
An illustration of Casimir Pulaski

The New Legacy of Casimir Pulaski

New findings reveal that the Polish war officer who aided the American Revolution may have been intersex.
Omar al-Bashir

Sudan’s Revolution and the Geopolitics of Human Rights

Sudan's former president Omar al-Bashir was indicted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and genocide. Why isn't he on trial?
A physician administers leeches to a patient. Colour reproduction of a lithograph by F-S. Delpech after L. Boilly, 1827.

Why Did the Victorians Harbor Warm Feelings for Leeches?

Medical authorities wrote about leeches as if they sucked blood out of the goodness of their hearts.
A Florida postcard

How Florida Got Its Name

506 years ago, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León landed in what he christened "Florida." Historians still wonder where the name came from.
Allan Pinkerton at the camp at Antietam in September, 1862

A Horse’s-Eye View of the Civil War

Horses and mules played a major role in the American Civil War. In the end, there were about twice as many dead equines as humans.