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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.

Image of U.S. commemorative stamp fir the Gadsden Purchase

Taking Slavery West in the 1850s

Before the Civil War, pro-slavery forces in the South—particularly the future president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis—tried to extend their power westward.
Tabula Indiae Orientalis et Regnorum adjacentium.

Culinary Fusion in the Ancient World

People from eastern Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, South Asia, and Southeast Asia have been sharing food plants across the Indian Ocean for millennia.
Vintage engraving showing police officers transporting prisoners in to the London Police Courts

The Industrial Revolution and the Rise of Policing

The increased use of machines and the division of labor allowed for the production of standardized products. It also made it easier to fence stolen goods.
A Spectro-Chrome, c. 1925

Colorful Lights to Cure What Ails You

Between 1920 and the 1960s, tens of thousands of people received treatment with a Spectro-Chrome to address various ailments.
The portrait of Confucius from Confucius, Philosopher of the Chinese

Confucius in the European Enlightenment

Many Enlightenment thinkers admired Confucius, leading to a debate over whether classical Chinese philosophy was compatible with Christianity.
The Reverend Brian Hession of the Dawn Trust and Bible Films Ltd film company starts a showing of a religious film at St Peter's Church, Piccadilly, London, 1946

Seeing the World Through Missionaries’ Eyes

One way Americans got a look into life in distant parts of the world in the 1930s and ’40s was through films made by Protestant missionary groups.
Matthias Brinsden murdering his wife in a quarrel, 18th century

Does Adultery Justify Murder?

There’s a popular (mis)perception that, prior to the rise of modern legal systems, a husband was considered justified in killing a straying wife.
Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, ca. 1860

Why Not Just Be a Nurse?

To be taken seriously as physicians, women doctors in nineteenth-century Britain felt the need to distinguish themselves from others of their gender.
Saint Wilgefortis

Meet Saint Wilgefortis, the Bearded Virgin

A Christian martyr, Wilgefortis was divinely gifted with a sudden growth of facial hair to escape forced marriage, only to be crucified by her father.
A dukun preparing medicine, c. 1910-1940

The International History of “Indigenous” Malay Healers

The origins of Malay and Indonesian dukun healers are intertwined with the history of Persian involvement in the region.
One knight consoling another knight on the ground

The Swooning Knights of Medieval Stories

In romantic literature of the fourteenth and fifteen centuries, fainting wasn’t just for ladies.
The eclipse of Agathocles

How Astronomers Write History

Scientists’ approach to dating past eclipses changed when they stopped treating classical texts as authoritative records.
The cover of the Chinese edition of Three Body Problem

Chinese Science Fiction Before The Three Body Problem

Viewing the genre as a means to spread modern knowledge, Chinese novelists have been writing science-fiction stories since at least 1902.
Jamia Mosque in Nairobi

A Mughal Mosque in Kenya

Built for Punjabi migrants brought to Africa by the British and modeled on Mughal architecture, the Jamia Masjid in Nairobi serves Kenya’s Muslim minority.
Chinese people perform Dragon Dance during a worship ceremony of Qingming Festival, also known as the "Tomb Sweeping Day" on April 2, 2005 in Chengdu of Sichuan Province, China.

Reviving Chinese Festivals

The government of China has been working to revitalize traditional celebrations that were suppressed after the adoption of the Gregorian calendar.
A map of the state of New York from 1813

Suppressing the Black Vote in 1811

As more Black men gained the right to vote in New York, the state began to change its laws to reduce their power or disenfranchise them completely.
Depiction of the Battle of Ravine-à-Couleuvres, during the Haitian Revolution, February 1802

The Haitian Revolution and American Slavery

For both US politicians and enslaved Black Americans, the Haitian Revolution represented the possibility of a successful violent rebellion by the oppressed.
illustration of a woman's body on abstract blob background

Do You Own Your Body?

The idea that our bodies are our own may be intuitive, but when it comes to market transactions like surrogacy, our beliefs and feelings get more complicated.
The spartan mother by Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée, 1770

Why Some Spartan Women Had Two Husbands

In ancient Sparta, it was accepted practice for more women to marry and have children by more than one man.
Acharya Shri Bhikshu, the founder and first spiritual head of Śvētāmbara Terapanth

Jain Ascetics in a Material World

The Jain Śvētāmbara Terāpanth sect began as an ascetic discipline, but it has increasingly emphasized physical health over renunciation of the body.
Walter Evans-Wentz and Lama Kazi Dawa Samdup, c. 1919

Where Tulpas Come From

Created through the power of the human mind, tulpas bear little resemblance to anything found in the Tibetan traditions in which they allegedly originated.
Source: https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/313378

Self Care and Community in 1901 Indianapolis

For Black women engaged with local institutions, the “Delsarte” technique was a means of supporting struggling city residents while advancing political power.
Asahi Beer poster with a young woman of Dai Nippon Brewery. From the Taisho period, circa 1920s.

How Beer Came to Asia

Reactions to the introduced brew ranged from Japanese efforts to imitate German beers to a reluctance to imbibe among Muslims and Hindus in India.
A 19th century madstone

Dubious Medicine on the Texas Frontier

If you got sick in the Texas frontier area in the decades before the Civil War, your options were all pretty bad.
Punctuation Personified: or, Pointing Made Easy (London: John Harris, 1824).

What Is Punctuation For?

Between the medieval and modern world, the marks used to make writing more legible changed from “pointing” to punctuation.