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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.

Cotton Mather
Politics & History

The Hellfire Preacher Who Promoted Inoculation

Three hundred years ago, Cotton Mather starred in a debate about treating smallpox that tore Boston apart.
Photograph: Marchers carrying a banner with the words 'Visibly Lesbian' Source: Steve Eason/Getty
Politics & History

How NOW Started Standing Up for Lesbians

If it had been up to national leaders alone, it might have taken much longer.
A policeman is seen during the World Cup match between Germany and Bolivia on June 17, 1994 in Chicago
Politics & History

The Black Cops Who Fought Brutality on Their Own Force

In 1960s Chicago, members of the Afro-American Patrolman's League challenged oppressive policing in Black communities.
Kuan Yin and Attendants, 1368
Art & Art History

Hair Embroidery as Women’s Buddhist Practice

In late imperial China, it was a devotional art using hairs plucked from devotees' own heads.
Stephanie St. Clair
Politics & History

Madame Stephanie St. Clair: Numbers Queen of Harlem

The colorful career of a woman who ran a gambling ring, fought police corruption, and challenged white mobsters.
Meta Warrick Fuller
Art & Art History

How Sculptor Meta Warrick Challenged White Supremacy

A 1907 exhibition on the founding of Jamestown featured the work of an artist determined to counter demeaning stereotypes.
Schoolchildren in Soweto, South Africa
Education

Kids’ Games in South Africa

Formal education in language and music is important for children, but as one scholar found, so is their own play involving gesture, slang, and pop songs.
The DC motto
Politics & History

The Long Fight for D.C. Statehood

Will the District of Columbia ever get its own star on the American flag? It's been an uphill journey so far.
Photograph: Robert Williams Source: Photo by J. Wilds/Keystone/Getty Images
Politics & History

Armed Self-Defense in the Civil Rights Movement

When idealistic nonviolent activists encountered violence in the South as they registered Black voters, local leaders lent them protection.
Fred Astaire and his sister Adele playing Mah Jong, 1926
Politics & History

White Women and the Mahjong Craze

Travelers brought the Chinese game to American shores in the early 1920s. Why was it such a hit?
Cigarmakers, Tampa, Florida, 1909 by Lewis Hine
Politics & History

Are Children “Persons”?

In the mid-nineteenth century, the law was ambiguous.
New Orleans, 1939
Business & Economics

How St. Louis Domestic Workers Fought Exploitation

Without many legal protections under the New Deal, Black women organized through the local Urban League.
A hand-colored engraving of a Purple Martin
Plants & Animals

The Disappearing Culture of Purple Martin Landlords

“You have to have almost a cruel streak in you to be a successful Martin landlord."
Florence Nightingale
Health

How Courageous Should Nurses Have to Be?

According to three scholars, it's asking a lot for health care professionals to be completely selfless.
Bombardment of Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor: 12th & 13th of April, 1861
Politics & History

How the Civil War Got Its Name

From "insurrection" to "rebellion" to "Civil War," finding a name for the conflict was always political.
A large group of Native Americans stage a protest over land rights by occupying the Bureau of Indian Affairs building and steps in front, Washington DC, November 6, 1972.
Politics & Government

Native Nations and the BIA: It’s Complicated

Historically, relations between Native Americans and the Bureau of Indian Affairs have been contentious. Is that still the case?
A dramatic portrayal of the 1856 attack and severe beating of Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner by Representative Preston S. Brooks of South Carolina.
Politics & History

Political Divisions Led to Violence in the U.S. Senate in 1856

The horrific caning of Charles Sumner on the floor of the Senate in 1856 marked one of the most divisive moments in U.S. political history.
A person's palms presented to the camera
Health

The Trouble with “Native DNA”

Genetic testing to determine who is Native American is problematic, argues Native American studies scholar Kim TallBear.
A girl scout troupe marching in parade in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn in the 1960s
Education

Desegregating the Girl Scouts

The Girl Scouts had always professed that they were open to all girls. But how did that play out in segregated cities?
Two arms with tattoos
Education & Society

Why Does the Bible Forbid Tattoos?

And have we been misinterpreting Leviticus?
Two boys selling newspapers outside of a saloon
Politics & History

How Women Lost Status in Saloons

During World War I, anti-vice crusaders marked women who liked the nightlife as shady. You can tell by the way men started talking about them.
Illustration: An illustration from the cover of Warm Worlds and Otherwise by James Tiptree, Jr. Source: Ballantine
Arts & Culture

James Tiptree Jr. and Joanna Russ: Sci-Fi Pen Pals

The two feminist authors corresponded about writing and romance, especially after Tiptree's true identity leaked.
Two pages from the Kaufmann Mishneh Torah, 1296
Arts & Culture

How to Revive a Dead Language

Although it was the language of sacred texts and ritual, modern Hebrew wasn't spoken in conversation till the late nineteenth century.
Still Life with a Peacock Pie
Education & Society

The Joy of Eating in Utopia

The early socialist Charles Fourier had grand ideas about food. The pleasure of eating was right up there with sex.
A cowboy pulling a sleigh of gifts
Business

The Rise and Fall of Montana’s Christmas-Tree Harvest

Douglas firs weren't great for lumber, but they once made the small town of Eureka the Christmas-tree capital of America.

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