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Black and white headshot of author Livia Gershon

Livia Gershon

Livia Gershon is a freelance writer in Nashua, New Hampshire. Her writing has appeared in publications including Salon, Aeon Magazine and the Good Men Project. Contact her on Twitter @liviagershon.

Being Trans in India

Trans women are organizing to fight discrimination and oppression. Trans men face different problems because they’re often not recognized at all.
Attendees of the joint meeting of the ASWPL and African American members of the Commission on Interracial Cooperation at Tuskegee Institute, 1938

How White Women Organized Against Lynching

In the 1930s, a coalition southern white women fought against lynching, disproving the idea that extrajudicial killings were intended to protect them.
Photoshopped Nazi propaganda from 1939

Portrait of a Nazi Bigamist

Otto M was a university researcher who was both an enthusiastic Nazi and a bigamist, openly married to two women.
Illustration of protestors at a Protest March

When Does Political Resistance Work?

The effectiveness of popular movements for social change depends on both underlying political conditions and the strategies adopted by activists.
Woman in Leopard Outfit With Woman in Blue Outfit

Lesbians and the Lavender Scare

Lesbian relationships among government workers were seen as a threat to national security in the 1950s. But what constituted a lesbian relationship was an open question.
An illustration of an arm controling media manipulation

How to be a Modern Autocrat

In the twenty-first century, dictators are less likely than their predecessors to use violence to suppress dissent, cultivating instead “informational autocracies.”
A collection of several book covers in the LGBTQ Canon

Is There an LGBTQ+ Canon?

An English professor considers the questions raised about selecting queer works for study and discussion when planning a course on LGBTQ+ literature.
From the picture album "Hakone 7 yu zue" by Hiroshige, 1852

Reinventing Vacation in Japan

In the late nineteenth century, Japan adopted Western-style vacation, but not everyone was on board with the new leisure practices.
Publicity photo on the set of the CBS anthology television series Studio One for a presentation of George Orwell's 1984

Turning Orwell into Propaganda

Many read the novels of George Orwell as pro-capitalist/anti-socialist propaganda, but his work has become a resource for all kinds of political arguments.
Portrait of Atisha

The Therapeutic Side of Tibetan Buddhism

Along with teachings on liberation from the cycles of death and rebirth, the Tibetan Buddhist tradition contains guidance on removing impediments to compassion.
12th September 1953: John Kennedy (1917 -1963) and Jacqueline Bouvier (1929 - 1994) pose with their ushers and maids of honor on their wedding day,

The Literal Magic of the Kennedys

Americans have long viewed the Kennedy family as a kind of magical royalty associated with occult notions and conspiracies.
Pliny the Elder

The Numinous World of Pliny the Elder

As a follower of Stoic philosophy, Pliny used sensory experience to try to understand the divine.
The Fire of Rome, 18 July 64 AD by Hubert Robert , 1785

A History of Fire

It’s only as we brought fire under better control that we stopped thinking so much about it—and, with climate change, that may be shifting again.
Mary Kay Baum shares photos and drawings with children at the Tres Cabelas cooperative school, 1986

Fighting for El Salvador, from Wisconsin

In the 1980s, people from across the US used civil programs and other direct connections with Salvadorans to build opposition to El Salvador’s oligarchy.
Sultan Bayezit II

Creating an Ottoman Political Culture

As the Ottoman Empire became a world power in the fifteenth century, it also became a center of culture, producing original political literature and philosophy.
A photograph of a red pill in someone's left palm and a blue pill in his right palm

An Age of Fantasy Politics

Tropes from science fiction and fantasy have become fodder for political rhetoric and action on all sides in the twenty-first century.
A couple gazes over the Nile River on Valentine's Day, February 14, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt.

Valentine’s Day in Egypt

In recent decades, celebrations of Valentine’s Day have become common in Egypt. But, as anthropologist Aymon Kreil found, opinions on the holiday are mixed.
Vintage American History print of President George Washington and President Abraham Lincoln shaking hands

Praising Washington in Lincoln’s Day

At the time of the Civil War, many Americans revered the nation’s Founding Fathers, and both supporters and opponents of slavery recruited them to their sides.
The cover of The Marking of the English Working Class by EP Thompson

E. P. Thompson and the American Working Class

Published in 1963, Thompson’s influential The Making of the English Working Class quickly led to questions about the nature of the American working class.
Bag of Money with Coins and Bills

How Progressives Legalized Usury

In the early twentieth century, reformers united with capitalists to promote high-interest lending, overthrowing opposition to usury rooted in Christian tradition.

What “Pain” Means

The English word “pain” once meant punishment, but over time, it’s been used to refer to different kinds of unpleasant experiences.
An illustration from the masthead of The Catholic Worker

Catholics Against Racism

As early as the 1930s, Black Catholic parishioners formed alliances with their white counterparts to put their churches in service of anti-racist goals.
Twin Cities Pride, 2011

How Minnesota Became a Queer Hmong Mecca

Despite policies meant to scatter immigrants from the same ethnic group across the United States, the Twin Cities area became a refuge for LGBTQ Hmongs.
Ettore Petrolini

Laughing With the Fascists

Mussolini’s regime isn’t generally associated with a sense of humor, but the Fascist party found comedy useful in certain circumstances.
Cover of The Culture Arts Review also known as 文华 Wén huá, 1929

Industrial Policy via Women’s Magazines

In the early 1900s, women’s magazines helped both women and men grapple with China’s fast-changing world of technology and industrial activity.