A Jewish Welfare Board cookout for soldiers

Community Cookbooks and the Women Who Wrote Them

Before "local" became a foodie obsession, small groups of women published collections of their own recipes. And still do!
A poster promoting healthy eating from between 1941 and 1945

The Idea of “Good Nutrition” Has Changed Over Time

But one thing has been constant: the tendency to call some foods better for you than others.
The Jewel Casket by John William Godward

Recipe for an Ancient Roman Glow Up

Start by saying yes to antioxidant-rich barley pap, and avoid wine tainted with newts.
Sophia Thoreau

Sophia Thoreau to the Rescue!

Who made sure Henry David Thoreau's works came out after his death? His sister.
The DSM in rainbow colors

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.
A bartender in 1951

How Women Fought for the Right to Be Bartenders

As Life magazine put it, “angry barmaids are tough opponents in any hassle.”
Close up of a basketball players feet

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.
Wonder Bread

Reliving the Wonder Years of Wonder Bread

This story is as enriching as the added nutrients in the legendary white bread.
Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu

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.
A view of part of the Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim on January 28, 2020 in Maale Adumim, West Bank.

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.