Far Out: Why Don’t We Believe in UFOs?
Is it scientific impossibility or simply human ego that stops us from entertaining the idea of extraterrestrial visitation?
The Popularity and Politics of Pedestrianism
The sport of competitive walking touched on social concerns such as debt and poverty, fitness and fame, but it also found support in the temperance movement.
Joseph McCarthy in Wheeling, West Virginia: Annotated
Senator Joseph McCarthy built his reputation on fear-mongering, smear campaigns, and falsehoods about government employees and their associates.
Reinventing Vacation in Japan
In the late nineteenth century, Japan adopted Western-style vacation, but not everyone was on board with the new leisure practices.
Popular Science—but Make It North Korean
In the 1950s, science in North Korea was presented in a way that fired children’s imaginations and encouraged youth to develop ideas that served the state.
Graffiti Limbo
A University of Virginia professor enlisted students to document the messages—profane, hopeful, despairing—left on library carrels by previous generations.
Monaco, a Mediterranean Principality Shaped by the Middle Ages
From Grimaldi piracy in the Medieval era to the high-stakes gambling tables of the present, Monaco celebrates its ties to science, religion, and royalty.
Turning Orwell into Propaganda
Many read the novels of George Orwell as pro-capitalist/anti-socialist propaganda, but his work has become a resource for all kinds of political arguments.
Performing Forensics: Doctors Becoming Expert Witnesses
Doctors in skeptical Scotland had to persuade the courts to listen to them, in part because of the historical animosity between the professions of law and medicine.
Disinheritance: The Internment of Japanese Canadians
Glenn McPherson, the bureaucrat largely responsible for selling off the property of interned Japanese Canadians during World War II, was also a secret agent.