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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.

Three pence Colonial currency from the Province of Pennsylvania. Signed by Thomas Wharton. Printed by Benjamin Franklin and David Hall, 1764
Business & Economics

Building an Economy on Paper Money

A shortage of coined currency led Pennsylvania to begin using paper money in the 1720s. The British didn't like it, but the colonists did.
Gathering Sap at a Maple Sugar Camp, Vermont
Politics & History

Praising Maple Sugar in the Early American Republic

In Early America, some prestigious residents advocated for the replacement of cane sugar, supplied by enslaved workers, with maple sugar from family farms.
Jim Allen (L), a self-described member of the Vice Lords street gang, gets a hug from former Gangster Disciple and current community activist Q. L. Anthony following a press conference September 2, 2010 in Chicago, Illinois.
Education & Society

What Do Chicago Gangs Provide to Their Members?

Confronted with discrimination and violence, gangs evolve and serve members differently, even when patterned after existing groups.
A group of Goldwater girls sitting in the shape of a 'G' in Sherman Oaks, California, whilst campaigning for Barry Goldwater, the Republican candidate for the Presidential election, July 1964
Politics & History

The Radical Right-Wing Housewives of 1950s California

The mobilization of housewives in 1950s California echoes through US national politics in the twenty-first century.
Radhakamal Mukerjee
Business & Economics

Radhakamal Mukerjee and Indian Intellectual Independence

Sociologist Radhakamal Mukerjee helped shape a new view of sociology from an Indian perspective, contributing to the independence movement.
The 1939 first edition cover of The Grapes of Wrath
Arts & Culture

Banning The Grapes of Wrath in 1939 California

The Kern County, CA Board of Supervisors got a lesson in the Streisand Effect back in 1939, when they banned The Grapes of Wrath from their libraries and schools.
Uber Eats delivery people
Politics & History

COVID-19 and Justice for Food Workers

The COVID-19 pandemic put food workers in danger of contracting infections, with few, if any, consequences for the industries' failures to protect them.
Dolores Huerta
Politics & History

The Foundations of Chicana Feminism

The Chicana feminist movement was initially met with resistance from within, and racism from without.
Hindu devotees celebrate during Holi with colored powders at the Banke Bihari temple on March 26, 2013 in Vrindavan, India.
Education & Society

Gender and Caste at Holi

The Hindu festival of Holi celebrates love, colors, and the arrival of spring. How it's celebrated can vary significantly throughout India.
Terence McKenna
Education & Society

Terence McKenna’s Anarchic Psychedelic Religion

Terence McKenna was an evangelist for the use of psilocybin and other mind-altering drugs, as a way to transcend and escape “untrammeled rationalism.”
Somebody stealing a speech bubble from another person
Arts & Culture

Policing Joke Theft

Joke theft: it's a serious matter.
From the cover of FAAR News, November 1, 1977
Politics & History

Feminism, Self-Defense, and (Not) Calling the Cops

The feminist movement of the 1970s worked to raise awareness of violence against women, but diverged on the role of law enforcement in fighting it.
Freedmans Village near Arlington Hights, Va., July 10th, 1865.
Politics & History

The Long Afterlife of Freedman’s Village

Freedman's Village, created in Arlington, VA at the end of the Civil War, became a thriving community of Black residents as part of Reconstruction.
Four Immortals Saluting Longevity. T
Politics & History

The Trouble with Immortality

Stories about immortality are present in many cultures throughout time. How cultures perceive immortality—as a blessing or a curse—can differ widely.
A cafeteria in Reeves County Detention Complex, Pecos, Texas
Education & Society

The Surprising Answer to Who Eats Kosher in Prison

24,000 incarcerated people in the U.S. eat kosher meals. Even some neonazis. Why?
Genealogical Chronological And Geographical Chart. Embracing Biblical And Profane History Of Ancient Times From Adam To Christ, 1887
Politics & History

Where Did Family-Bible Genealogies Come From?

Royal lineage tracing, British laws of inheritance, and patriarchal Protestantism all contributed to the genealogical literacy of some Americans.
Cover of Letha Dawson Scanzoni and Nancy A. Hardesty's All We're Meant To Be
Education & Society

Whatever Happened to Evangelical Feminism?

From Christianity’s beginnings, the religion has been split between two visions of gender relations.
An illustration from The surprising adventures of a female husband! by Henry Fielding
Politics & History

The Female Husband is So Eighteenth Century

Henry Fielding's novel, a fictional account of the life of Charles Hamilton, conflates vagrancy with sexual, gender, and religious deviance.
Source: https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/ids:4589524
Politics & History

When Harvard Students Couldn’t Get Warm

The early heating systems of New England kept Harvard students cold until the early twentieth century.
Adherents of Santeria celebrate Santa Barbara on December 4 , 2002 in Isla de la Juventud, Cuba.
Education & Society

Music and Spirit in the African Diaspora

The musical traditions found in contemporary Black U.S. and Caribbean Christian worship originated hundreds of years ago, continents away.
anti-apartheid marchers on their way to Twickenham rugby ground in 1970
Politics & History

Fighting Apartheid with Sports

Apartheid policies that segregated sports in South Africa were challenged by its own athletes, as well as internationally.
A photograph of the blue cover of the first edition, 1st printing of the book Ulysses by James Joyce, 1922
Arts & Culture

Censoring Ulysses

In reviewing the UK Home Office files on James Joyce's Ulysses, a historian found baffled officials afraid to bring more attention to it.
A map of Trinidad showing the location of Fondes Amandes
Science & Technology

How a Rastafari Community Protects the Land in Trinidad

A small community grows around ecosystem preservation and shared beliefs, to the benefit of the residents and the land they live on.
Battle of the Boyne between James II and William III, 11 June 1690
Politics & History

Britain’s Blueprint for Colonialism: Made in Ireland

The British Empire began developing its colonialization tactics in Ireland and Canada, before exporting them throughout the world.
A person snowmobiling in Gifford Pinchot National Forest, WA, 1987
Education & Society

A Brief History of Snowmobiling

Snowmobiles were invented around the same time as wheeled transportation was becoming a robust industry.

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