Skip to content
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.

Michalangelo Last Judgement

How Did Michelangelo Get So Good?

Michelangelo, perhaps the greatest artist the world has produced, wasn't a child prodigy like Mozart. He learned on the job. So maybe there's still hope for the rest of us.
Warsaw Ghetto

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and Jewish Identity

How do identity politics work in extremis? The resistance in the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising had to both suppress and amplify their Jewishness.
Flu hospital 1918

The Flu Pandemic of 1918, As Reported in 1918

The Spanish Influenza pandemic 100 years ago was the most lethal global disease outbreak since the Black Death. What were people thinking at the time?
Martin Luther King Jr and LBJ

Martin Luther King Jr. in His Own Words

The writings of Martin Luther King, not so well known as his speeches and acts of civil disobedience, are a rich source for those researching his life.
Samuel Richardson

Why the First Novel Created Such a Stir

Samuel Richardson's Pamela, the first novel in English, astounded and terrified readers. Authors have striven for the same effect since.
Hogarth crime

The First Moral Panic: London, 1744

The late summer crime wave of 1744 London sparked an intense moral panic about crime that burnt itself out by the new year. But not before heads rolled.
New Years Eve 1910

The Lost Tradition of New Year’s Day Calling

The colonial Dutch tradition of making social calls on New Year's Day in New York was no match for 19th-century-style partying.
Samurai battle on old vintage Japanese screen

Whatever Happened to the Samurai?

Warriors rarely give up their power, but the samurai of Japan dwindled away rapidly after the Meiji Restoration and the modernization of the country.
player piano

Player Pianos and the Commodification of Music

Half of all American homes had a piano or player piano a century ago, but very few do now. Whatever happened to the parlor piano?
Cars crashing at the demolition derby

A Crash Course in the Demolition Derby

The demolition derby was ready-made for the age of planned obsolescence from automobile manufacturers, who happily sponsored demolition derby venues.
Mr and Mrs William Lindow

How 17th Century Unmarried Women Helped Shape Capitalism

Under coverture, married English women had no rights to their property, even though unmarried women did, making for a unique system in Europe.
Panama stamp

How a Postage Stamp May Have Helped Create the Panama Canal

The decision to build a Panama Canal came about because of two lobbyists, one of whom thought a stamp would make a telling point.
Sugar cane trade Portugal

Madeira, The Island That Helped Invent Capitalism

Madeira is famous for its wine and scenery today, but in the 15th century it boomed and then busted as the sugar capital of the world.
Suffragette posters

How Women’s Suffrage Has Been Represented in American Film

Women's suffrage was usually portrayed negatively in early films, but suffragists well recognized the importance of movies in getting their message out.
Arlington Confederate Monument

The History of the History of American Slavery

In an age when the White House is being asked if slavery was a good or bad thing, perhaps we should take a look at the history of the history of slavery.
Popcorn history

Popcorn: From Ancient Snack to Movie Standby

Popcorn is probably one of the oldest uses of the domesticated Mexican grass called teosinte, which has been cultivated as maiz for thousands of years.
Casablanca poster

Casablanca at 75

On the 75th anniversary of the premier of Casablanca, let's revisit the art and politics of this venerable American classic.
Commune Cookbook

What Hippie Commune Cookbooks Reveal About Communal Living

The cookbooks of the communes of the 1960s and 1970s share the recipes and politics of the era, and still speak to us today about what we eat and why.
Great Moon Hoax Sun

How the Sun Conned the World With “The Great Moon Hoax”

The birth of the penny press, the first mass media, was very much mixed up with fake news, including the Great Moon Hoax of 1835.
Benjamin Lay portrait

Benjamin Lay: The Radical “Quaker Comet”

Benjamin Lay was a radical abolitionist who helped turn the Quakers from slave-holders to leaders of the anti-slavery movement.
Martin Luther Cranach portrait

Why Martin Luther’s Body Type Mattered

Five hundred years after posting his ninety-five theses and launching the Reformation, Martin Luther remains a big man of history. Literally.
Forest fire burning, Wildfire at night in Chiangmai, Thailand

Welcome to the Age of Megafires

It's been a terrible year for fires in California and elsewhere around the world. Because then it always is now in the age of megafires.
Portrait of Sir Thomas Browne

Sir Thomas Browne’s Vulgar Errors

If you're suffering from exhaustion, hallucination, or a coma, then you have Sir Thomas Browne, dead 335 years now, to thank.
Karl Marx

How the American Civil War Shaped Marxism

Although Karl Marx never saw the U.S., he thought long and hard about how it fit into his theory, especially during the Civil War.
Rudy Vallee

The Gender Politics of the First Boy Bands

Crooning, a musical style of the late 1920s and early 1930s, was fraught with gender panic. Where the singers manly enough?