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Black and white headshot of author Matthew Wills

Matthew Wills

Matthew Wills has advanced degrees in library science and film studies and is lapsed in both fields. He has published in Poetry, Huffington Post, and Nature Conservancy Magazine, among other places, and blogs regularly about urban natural history at matthewwills.com.

Carrie and Emma Buck
Politics & History

When Forced Sterilization was Legal in the U.S.

The 1927 case of Buck v. Bell set the stage for forced sterilizations for eugenics, but it turned out to based on complete falsehoods.
Jeanna Moreau
Arts & Culture

Jeanne Moreau and the Birth of Cool

The French actress Jeanne Moreau worked with directors Truffaut, Duras, Buñuel, Renoir, Antonioni, Fassbinder, and Orson Welles.
Earthworm in soil
Plants & Animals

Maybe Earthworms Aren’t So Great For Soil After All

Earthworms are often portrayed as beneficial to the environment, but in North America's temperate forests, they are a disaster in action.
Bronte Sisters
Arts & Culture

Branwell: The Other Brontë

It's the 200th anniversary of the birth of Branwell Brontë, who isn't nearly as famous as his three sisters but remains a key player in the family drama.
Puritan Book Burning
Education & Society

What Links Religion and Authoritarianism?

The connections between religiousness and authoritarianism, studied for decades, depend upon the kind of religious belief.
Sugar Beet Field
Business

Did Youth Farming Programs Really Fight Juvenile Delinquency?

Summer jobs for teens are becoming a thing of the past, but considering these beet farm jobs, maybe we shouldn't romanticize them too much.
Mad Magazine
Arts & Culture

How Mad Magazine Informed America’s Cultural Critique

When Tales Calculated to Drive You MAD—Humor in a Jugular Vein first erupted onto the streets in 1952, it was like nothing ever seen before.
Plastic Pink Flamingos Flock together on Lawn
Education & Society

How the Plastic Pink Flamingo Became an Icon

The ubiquitous pink flamingo lawn ornament is 60 years old, a product of the age of suburbs and plastic. It has a surprising natural history.
Stalingrad flag
Politics & History

How the Nazis Created the Myth of Stalingrad

The battle of Stalingrad was the first major defeat of the Nazis in World War II, and presented the Nazis with a propaganda quandary.
Roswell NM mural
Education & Society

Roswell, Sacred Shrine of UFO Enthusiasts

Seventy years ago, something happened in Roswell, New Mexico, that put the place on the map and embedded it into the culture. What was it?
Ballooners
Politics & History

Why Hot Air Balloons Never Really (Ahem) Took Off

More than two centuries after the invention of ballooning, Steve Fossett became the first person to solo circumnavigate the world in a balloon.
Trafalgar Square
Politics & History

London Has Always Been Multicultural

The conventional story is that "black Britain" came about after World War II, but London has been a multicultural capital for centuries.
Stonewall Inn
Politics & History

Why Stonewall?

The Stonewall riot in June, 1969 is generally remembered as be the beginning of the gay liberation movement. But there was precedent for the event.
Chelsea Manning
Politics & Government

How The Espionage Act Became a Tool of Repression

The Espionage Act of 1917 marked the beginning of the one of the most repressive periods in American history, with 2000 dissenters prosecuted.
Danish Expedition
Politics & History

The Fantastic Disaster of the Arabia Felix Expedition

The Danish expedition to the Arabian Peninsula of 1761-1767 was a bungle of mismatched egos and wretched conditions. There was only a single survivor.
Canadian Flag
Politics & Government

How Canada Learned From the U.S.A.’s Mistakes

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Canada as a nation. They that took as their model of democracy lessons from both Britain and the US.
Fallingwater
Art & Art History

Frank Lloyd Wright at 150

Frank Lloyd Wright remains the most famous American architect even though he was born just two years after the end of the Civil War.
Ronald Reagan 1982
Politics & Government

Ronald Reagan, The First Reality TV Star President

Ronald Reagan is at the heart of the modern American politics of advertising, public relations, and a television in every home.
Mary Edwards Walker
Politics & History

Why Modernist Women Liked Cross-Dressing

Women pioneers of modernism like Gertrude Stein, Frida Kahlo, Radclyffe Hall, & Djuna Barnes found cross-dressing a blessing in disguise.
JFK congress speech
Politics & Government

How JFK’s World View Shaped His Presidency

On the 100th anniversary of the birth of John F. Kennedy, let's examine his world view as President in the middle of the Cold War.
Linnaeus Skulls
Plants & Animals

The Gender Politics Behind Why We’re “Mammals”

Linnaeus, who described most plants and animals by their male characteristics, chose to name humans and their relatives after the female breast.
Noah Webster painting
Politics & Government

How Noah Webster Invented the Word Immigration

Noah Webster, author of An American Dictionary of the English Language published in 1828, invented the word "immigration."
Tammany Patronage
Politics & Government

Why Did U.S. Postmasters Once Have So Much Political Cachet?

American bureaucracy used to work through patronage, an informal system of job-distribution by the party in power. Why did it change?
single-payer protest
Health

America’s Long Fight Over Single-Payer Healthcare

With new calls for universal single-payer health insurance, President Harry Truman's derailed plan of 1945 is getting renewed attention.
Woolf Dreadnaught hoax
Arts & Culture

When Virginia Woolf Wore Blackface

In February 1910, Virginia Woolf, her brother, and some and friends pulled a prank known to history as the Dreadnought Hoax.

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