Drinking with Intellectual Humility
What happens when you mix alcohol with intellectual humility? A philosopher asks a writer and former bartender to share her thoughts.
When Hitchhiking was Wholesome
In the 1930s, hitchhiking was viewed as an opportunity for generosity on the part of the driver and a way to practice good manners on the part of the rider.
The Countercultural History of Living Museums
In the 1960s and ’70s, guides began wearing period costumes and farming with historical techniques, a change that coincided with the back-to-the-land movement.
Casanova was Famous for Being Famous
Giacomo Casanova achieved celebrity not through any particular achievement but by mingling with famous people and making himself the subject of gossip.
Banning Christmas Dinner
Poor laws passed in Great Britain in the 1830s reversed a centuries-old tradition to forbid workhouses from serving roast beef and plum pudding at Christmas.
Paris’s Wild Costume Balls
As urban growth brought rich and poor Parisians closer together in the 1830s, masked balls encouraged class mixing and costumes that crossed gender lines.
The Magic of a Crooked Sixpence
Coins were used for centuries in many ritual contexts, but the English silver sixpence was a particularly common charm—for several reasons.
Passing Narratives That Pre-Date Black Like Me
In 1905, Robert Gilbert Wells used a fictional character to explore the experience of being a Black man in America.
What Skulls Told Us
The pseudoscience phrenology swept the popular imagination, and its practitioners made a mint preying on prejudices, gullibility, and misinformation.
Dawn of the Bathroom
The bathroom didn’t become a thing until the nineteenth century, and most working-class US homes added plumbed-in amenities in piecemeal fashion over time.