The Illuminati was a real secret society. But in the hands of British conservatives during the French Revolution, it became a massive conspiracy.

The iconography of Mexico's Día de los Muertos has become wildly popular outside Latino communities. But where did the skulls and skeletons come from?

Colonial exploitation made the indigenous Aztec people disproportionately vulnerable to epidemics. Indigenous accounts show their perspective.

Egyptian tomb chapels depict men, women, and children of different ranks in society. What can their hairstyles tell us about their lives?

OSPAAAL, the international, pro-communist organization formed in 1966, decried American imperialism with powerful propaganda.

How the meaning of Blackness, and the social construction of race, varies across era and region.

Scholars of early modern England have shown how plague and protest are often correlated. The Black Death of 1348 laid the groundwork for the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, for example.

In Maya culture, rulers used stingray spines in bloodletting rituals. Researchers have ideas about why.

Using aluminum as a case study, a geographer shows how wartime "commodity chains" can devastate the Earth.

The fight against locust swarms allowed the Soviet Union to consolidate power over neighboring regions.