How LGBTQ+ Activists Got “Homosexuality” out of the DSM
The first DSM, created in 1952, established a hierarchy of sexual deviancies, vaulting heterosexual behavior to an idealized place in American culture.
How Women Fought for the Right to Be Bartenders
As Life magazine put it, “angry barmaids are tough opponents in any hassle.”
Playing Girls’ Basketball in 1930s Chinatown
Chinese American girls played an innovative style of basketball on the playgrounds of San Francisco, and dominated the court.
Reliving the Wonder Years of Wonder Bread
This story is as enriching as the added nutrients in the legendary white bread.
Chien-Shiung Wu, the First Lady of Physics
Chien-Shiung Wu disproved a fundamental law of physics—a stunning achievement that helped earn her male colleagues (but not her) a Nobel Prize.
Settlements and the Israel-Palestine Conflict: Background Reading
Scholarship about Israeli settlement in occupied Palestinian territories provides historical context for recent violence in the region.
Sergei Eisenstein and the Haitian Revolution
Why was the legendary Soviet filmmaker rebuffed in his vision of putting history's most consequential slave revolt on screen?
How a Forbidden Russian Epic Finally Got Published
Soviet dissident Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate was "arrested" by the KGB in 1961. Here's how it finally saw the light of day.
How American Girl Scouts Shocked Mexico in the 1950s
At a retreat center called Our Cabaña, girls from all over the world became Cold War–era diplomats. American scouts had additional ideas.