How do identity politics work in extremis? The resistance in the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising had to both suppress and amplify their Jewishness.

Tea is bound up in the nation's history of colonial expansion. British tea drinkers preferred Chinese tea at first, and had to be convinced on patriotic grounds to drink tea from India.

The late summer crime wave of 1744 London sparked an intense moral panic about crime that burnt itself out by the new year. But not before heads rolled.

Warriors rarely give up their power, but the samurai of Japan dwindled away rapidly after the Meiji Restoration and the modernization of the country.

Kilts are traditional garb from Scotland, right? Well, that's not quite the whole story.

Under coverture, married English women had no rights to their property, even though unmarried women did, making for a unique system in Europe.

The decision to build a Panama Canal came about because of two lobbyists, one of whom thought a stamp would make a telling point.

In September, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced to the world that it would begin licensing women to drive in 2018. Is it all part of a PR campaign?

Deaf servants were favored companions of the Ottoman sultan, and their facility in nonverbal communication made them indispensable to the court.

Madeira is famous for its wine and scenery today, but in the 15th century it boomed and then busted as the sugar capital of the world.