The World War II Escape Route from France to Martinique
After the fall of France to the Nazis in 1940, some refugees tried to make it out through the Caribbean.
Slave Collars in Ancient Rome
The objects purported to speak for the wearer: "Hold me! I have run away."
Catherine de’ Medici Was Good at Chess
The game was a way for early modern women in royal courts to prove their skill in political life.
George Washington Williams and the Origins of Anti-Imperialism
Initially supportive of Belgian King Leopold II’s claim to have created a “free state” of Congo, Williams changed his mind when he saw the horrors of empire.
The Bayonet: What’s the Point?
According to one scholar, the military sees training in this obsolete weapon as helpful on the modern battlefield.
Library Fires Have Always Been Tragedies. Just Ask Galen.
When Rome burned in 192 CE, the city's vibrant community of scholars was devastated. The physician Galen described the scale of the loss.
Uplifting the Masses with Public Parks
Created in Victorian England, the earliest public parks were on a civilizing mission.
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.
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?
