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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.

From the Spring 1972 cover of Ms. Magazine
Arts & Culture

Ms. Magazine’s Tricky Relationship with Advertising

On the fiftieth anniversary of Ms. Magazine, a look back at how the publication managed advertising demands while maintaining its founding ethos.
A cover design for Annie on My Mind
Arts & Culture

Queer YA: The Early Decades

While queer YA has exploded over the past decade, it began in the middle of the 20th century, with the first kiss in 1969.
A British airship in flight above the British countryside set against a cloudy sky, 1918
Politics & History

Whatever Happened to Airships?

In moving away from fossil fuels, some in aviation are thinking of bringing back helium-assisted flight.
A group of high school students constructs basic measuring devices for testing air, water, noise, and radiation-pollution levels. c. 1972
Education

The Troubles with Tracking

Educators have been debating academic tracking since the early years of the public high school.
An illustration of a hand holding a set of hand cuffs
Politics & History

Let’s Talk About (Your) Crimes

Asking yourself about what you've "gotten away with" may change how you think about "criminals."
Acland servants in 1897 by Sarah Angelina Acland
Politics & History

Who Does the Drudge Work? Answers from Edwardian Britain

In 1909, Kathlyn Oliver called for the creation of a servants' trade union that was “as important to the community as the worker[s] in any other sphere."
Sitdown strikers in the Fisher body plant factory number three. Flint, Michigan, 1937
Business

The Flint Sit-Down Strike, From the Inside

Americans in "The Great Resignation" and "Strikevember" are the heirs of the 1936-1937 sit-down strike by auto workers in Flint, Michigan.
A rice farmer with a handcart in Pingtung County, Taiwan, circa 1965.
Politics & History

Reclaiming Rice in Taiwan

After World War II, the US ramped up international food aid, both as a Cold War strategy and as a way to distribute surplus products.
A Cheshire cat stuffed toy, from the permanent collection of The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis.
Arts & Culture

A Brief History of Literary Cats

There’s nothing like curling up with a good book and a soft cat. Even better is a book with a cat in it.
Two devadesis in Chennai, India, in the 1920s.
Politics & History

How South Asian Temple Dancers Fought Moral Reform

Devadāsīs appealed to a longstanding tradition to argue that they had a legitimate position in their modernizing nation.
Carl Sagan holding a globe model of the planet Mars, 1970s.
Natural Science

Should We Go to Mars? Carl Sagan Had Thoughts

It'd be "a step more significant than the colonization of land by our amphibian ancestors some 500 million years ago." But Sagan had reservations.
An illustration of a dating app with Victorian women's photographs
Politics & History

The “Dating Apps” of Victorian England

They didn't have smartphones back then, but they still had personal ads.
Andrew Carnegie (left) and Melvil Dewey (right)
Education

When Melvil Dewey Pursued Andrew Carnegie’s Millions

A clash of library enthusiasts ended with a sexual harassment scandal.
A Man And Woman Showing Ink-Marked Finger And Voter Card in Calcutta, India
Politics & Government

Why Vote? Lessons from Indian Villages

The voters one scholar studied didn't necessarily think they would benefit materially from being on the winning side. But turnout was over 90 percent.
Tobacco sharecropper's wife cleaning up table after washing breakfast dishes. Person County, North Carolina, 1939, by Dorothea Lange
Politics & History

How the New Deal Documented Southern Food Cultures

Photographers and writers hired by the US government presented the foodways of the South to a wide audience.
The Illustrated Police News, November 17, 1888
Politics & History

How Crime Stories Foiled Reform in Victorian Britain

Harsh punishments were declining in the nineteenth century. Then came sensationalist news coverage of a reputed crime wave.
A demon beneath the foot of St. Michael
Education & Society

Where Demons Come From

They're Satan's minions, no?
Ancient human footprints found at White Sands National Park in New Mexico
Education & Society

Why Academic-Indigenous Collaboration Is Tricky

Although many archaeologists are trained to prize objectivity, Indigenous scholars approach research with a different sort of grounding.
Walmart employee Clara Martinez stocks the shelves at a Walmart store on February 19, 2015 in Miami, Florida.
Business

How Retail Sales Became “Unskilled” Work

There's a big difference between how salespeople in traditional department stores and big-box retailers interact with their customers.
The cast and crew of a 1950's film at work on a sound stage
Business & Economics

How Show Business Went Union

Since the nineteenth century, the IATSE union has organized behind-the-scenes workers, first in theater, then in the movies.
Albert Raboteau
Education & Society

Albert Raboteau on Re-Enchanting the World

The late religion scholar suggested that to regain a sense of wonder, we should look to education.
Thoreau as a Young Man
Education & Society

Did Thoreau Do Yoga?

The transcendentalist was big on Asian texts—at least as he understood them.
Parker Pillsbury
Politics & History

Parker Pillsbury, Nineteenth-Century Male Feminist

Abolitionists like the New Hampshire native believed that masculinity required self-control, setting them against violent enslavers.
From Home Suggestions, 1921
Art & Art History

How American Consumers Embraced Color

Vivid hues in everyday products became eye-popping reality in the early twentieth century.
Governor William Burnet of New York meets with the Iroquois in 1721
Politics & History

The Native American Roots of the US Constitution

The Iroquois, Shawnee, Cherokee, and other political formations generally separated military and civil leadership and guarded certain personal freedoms.

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