An illustration of 19th-century lovers

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Lust

The turn from punishing sexual activity outside of marriage toward the idea of personal sexual freedom began in the West between 1600 and 1800.
Dakota pipeline protestors

Celebrating Indigenous Peoples and Cultures

More and more states are choosing to celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day instead of Columbus Day.
A detail from Portrait of Ferry Carondelet with his Secretary by Sebastiano del Piombo, 1510

The Merchants of Venice—In Code

Sixteenth-century Venice conducted its affairs in code, so much so that cryptology was professionalized and regulated by the state.
Liberia and the Centennial exhibition, 1876

Building a New Virginia in Liberia

Black American voluntary migrants to Liberia were eager to embrace their African roots, but their vision for the country was very much an American one.
Pollice Verso (Thumbs Down) by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1872

Did Romans Really Fight Rhinos?

A sports historian explains the truth behind the battle scenes in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II.
Two poachers with a sack. At their feet their lurcher dogs and the corpses of several hares.

Frederick Gowing, King of Poachers

The cultural construction of poaching meant Gowing’s trespasses were understood differently than other kinds of theft in an industrializing Britain.
Picking lemons in a grove on the Conca d'Oro (Golden Shell), outside Palermo, Sicily, ca. 1900-1910

The Lemon Gang: Citrus and the Rise of the Mafia

Poverty, disparities in wealth, widespread brigandage, and the dissolution of the feudal system enabled the predatory practices of Sicily’s citrus mafia.
Opera di M. Bartolomeo Scappi, cuoco secreto di Papa Pio V

The Wild West of Papal Conclaves

In the sixteenth and seventeenth century, the death of a pope led to all sorts of chaos, from the destruction of art to armed violence in the streets.
Brigadier General Smedley Butler, 1927.

Genesis of the Modern American Right

During the Great Depression, financial elites translated European fascism into an American form that joined high capital with lower middle-class populism.
No. 27 - Kakegawa: Akibayama Fork, from the series The Tôkaidô Road - The Fifty-three Stations, also known as the Reisho Tôkaidô, between 1847 and 1852

How a Rice Economy Toppled the Shogun

The co-existence of economies—one based on rice, the other on money—pushed the Tokugawa government toward financial misery and failure.