September 1922: The Great Fire of Smyrna
A hundred years after the cosmopolitan city burnt to the ground, the truth about who started the fire and why remains a point of contention.
A Tale of Two Times: Edo Japan Encounters the European Clock
In country that followed a time-keeping system with variable hours, the fixed-hour clock of the Europeans had only symbolic value.
Woman on a Mission
For pioneering journalist Bessie Beatty, women’s suffrage and the plight of labor were linked inextricably.
The Late-Night Circuit: Why Do Politicians Do It?
With a captive audience of millions and a relaxed atmosphere, the late-night talk show offers a good opportunity to make policy discussions more memorable.
The Lady Who Might Have Been Queen of England
The failed campaign to put Lady Arbella Stuart in the line of succession began with a matchmaking scheme between her two grandmothers.
The RAF on Speed: High-Flying or Flying High?
Drug use during World War II, especially by Nazis, was typically viewed as immoral. But what about when it was approved by leaders of the Royal Air Force?
African Swimmers in American Waters
Although most enslaved people worked in the fields, captive workers with strong swimming and diving skills were also exploited by plantation owners.
From Mud to the Sun: The World Tree of the Maya
Cosmic trees, found around the globe and throughout history, may represent a primeval fount of creation or a vegetal axis mundi that connects life and death.
Street Harassment in Victorian London
Middle- and upper-class women complained about “so-called gentlemen” who stared at them, blocked their paths, and followed them as they tried to shop.
A Colorblind Compromise?
“Colorblindness,” an ideology that denies that race is an organizing principle of the nation’s structural order, reaches back to the drafting of the US Constitution.