Skip to content
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.

Boy and girl standing in front of camera with car.
Politics & History

Fun with Naming Decades in History

Whether the 2020s will roar remains to be seen, but people have been coming up with nicknames for decades since the Elegant (18)80s.
An image of Native Americans swapping wives
Politics & History

Polygamy, Native Societies, and Spanish Colonists

Having more than one wife was an established part of life for some Native peoples before Europeans tried to end the practice.
Medieval illumination of a dog, 14th century, from a Codex in the Czech Republic
Politics & History

The Hardworking Dogs of Medieval Europe

Not everyone can be a pampered pooch.
Marker drawing of Rodney King speaking while a recording of the beating plays at his civil trial against the city of Los Angeles, California
Politics & History

How the Media Covered Police Brutality Three Decades Ago

The first stories about the beating of Rodney King in two major newspapers focused on racial injustice. But that changed.
A woman picking vegetables
Business & Economics

How the Black Labor Movement Envisioned Liberty

To Reconstruction-era Black republicans, the key to preserving the country’s character was stopping the rise of a wage economy.
Act 3 Scene 2 of "As You Like It"
Arts & Culture

Are We Getting Shakespeare’s Rhythms All Wrong?

Trippingly on the tongue? Yeah, right.
Albert Einstein c. 1920
Politics & History

How Einstein Became a Celebrity

His theory of general relativity was well known in the U.S., but his 1921 visit caused a sensation.
Boy scouts in CA, 1915
Politics & History

Why Do Boy Scouts Shoot Rifles?

It wasn't a big focus at the beginning of the scouting movement. So what changed?
Metropolitan Community Church of Washington DC
Education & Society

The Origins of LGBTQ-Affirming Churches

As far back as the 1940s, religious LGBTQ people organized groups and congregations that welcomed them.
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Suicides_of_Meleager_and_Althea_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
Politics & History

Why Suicide Was a Sin in Medieval Europe

Although there were historical and scriptural precedents for honorable suicide, Christian theology saw it much differently.
Black and white of Eartha Kitt
Politics & History

When Eartha Kitt Condemned Poverty and War at the White House

It was supposed to be a genteel luncheon with the first lady dedicated to discussing crime policy. The chanteuse had other ideas.
American Anti-Vivisection Society 1909
Politics & History

Scientists vs. Animal Welfare Activists in the 1920s

The movement against vivisection—experiments involving live animals—swelled with women. A group of scientists was determined to stop them.
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."

Support JSTOR Daily

Help us keep publishing stories that provide scholarly context to the news.