A procession of Cagots arrives on the banks of the Lapaca, 19th century

The Forgotten Untouchables of France

For centuries, a mysterious community in southwestern Europe endured extreme discrimination with no clear cause.
Jean Paul Sartre

Why Do People Embrace Hate? Sartre Has an Answer

A classic essay examines the hidden dynamics behind modern prejudice.
From the cover of Vietnam: The Boat People Search for a Home

How 1980s Children’s Books Framed Vietnamese Refugees

Children’s books introduced Vietnamese refugees to US readers, often simplifying their histories and experiences.
The Ladies Literary Club in 1951

The Intimate Memorials of a Ladies Literary Club

These remembrances reveal a century of women’s friendships in one Midwestern literary club.
An illustration from a childrens' story from 1922

Worried About Teens Today? So Were Adults in the 1920s

A century ago, new technology and mobility reshaped what it meant to be young, linking rural life more closely to the city.
Studio portrait of amateur photographer Tan Gwat Bing in Central Java

The Immigrant Photographers Who Shaped a Nation’s Image

In early twentieth-century Indonesia, Chinese-run studios brought modernity into focus.
Lion Dance Costume used during Chinese New Year

Chinese Lion Dance Finds New Life in Newfoundland

A small Chinese Canadian community reshapes a performance tradition across generations, redefining how the art form is practiced and understood.
A portrait of Cordelia Sanders, a mixed-race woman, daughter to Richard Walpole Cogdell and Sarah Martha Sanders, ca. 1860.

Race, Fertility, and the Science of Slavery in Antebellum America

Pseudoscience about mixed-race women’s fertility helped justify slavery in nineteenth-century America.
An illustration of German carnival

The Hidden Politics of German Carnival

From the Middle Ages to the Third Reich, carnival has served as a stage for protest and power.
Leather hides drying on tannery rooftop in Kolkata, india

Caste and Culture in Kolkata’s Chinese Leather Trade

In eastern Kolkata, a Hakka Chinese community carved out an economic niche in leather production amid stigma surrounding purity and caste hierarchy.