Mao Zedong: Reader, Librarian, Revolutionary?
Before becoming leader of communist China, Mao was an ardent library patron and then worked as a library assistant.
O Canada: A Refuge for LGBTQ+ People Worldwide?
Canada welcomes those facing persecution for sexual orientation or gender identity—but the process to claim asylum may not be straightforward.
In Search of Einstein’s Brain
After Albert Einstein’s death in 1955, a pathologist—searching for the secret of genius—removed, dissected, and ultimately stole the mathematician’s brain.
A Million Americans Once Voted for an Incarcerated Socialist
Eugene Debs campaigned for both president and prison reform from a federal penitentiary. His critiques of the prison system still resonate.
Whiskey, Women, and Work
Prohibition—and its newly created underground economy—changed the way women lived, worked, and socialized.
JFK’s Assassination and “Doing Your Own Research”
Revelations about secret government programs after Kennedy’s assassination increased the power of conspiracy theories and the fervor of those who set out to expose them.
Uncle Sam Wants You to Donate Books!
During World War I, the American Library Association built libraries on military training camps in a project that championed patriotism, literacy, and self-improvement.
A Cancelation in 1934
A writer for the Baltimore Sun compared Hitler to the sixteenth-century Catholic Saint Ignatius. Archbishop Curley had something to say about that.
Divorce, Gen-X Style
By clinging to a one-dimensional view of selfish parents and ignored kids, GenXers missed the chance to empathize with their (heading-for-a-divorce) parents.
Exposing the Sexual Hypocrisy of European Colonists
In the early twentieth century, white colonizers’ exploitation of women in West Africa’s Gold Coast stoked anti-colonial politics.