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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.

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.
Marineland Porpoise
Plants & Animals

Why Don’t We Consider Fish Worth Saving?

Until recently, Americans did not generally consider fish to be wildlife. As a result, conservation measures for them got a late start.
Screenshot of the film "It's a Wonderful Life"
Arts & Culture

The FBI Goes to the Movies

In its hunt for communists in Hollywood, the FBI criticized the 1946 classic It's "A Wonderful Life" as subversive propaganda.
US Army Philippines War poster
Politics & History

The Ugly Origins of America’s Involvement in the Philippines

The American use of torture, then called the “water cure,” in the Philippines during the war of 1899–1902 shocked some Americans of the day.
Jean Stein
Arts & Culture

The Literary Life of Jean Stein

Among her other literary accomplishments, Jean Stein edited Grand Street for 14 years. Here are two of her interviews for the magazine.
Valetta city buildings with birds flying over them, Malta
Plants & Animals

To Kill a Maltese Bird

The Mediterranean island nation of Malta is the scene of migratory bird massacres twice a year. Why do they continue to do it?
Jamie Dimon
Performing Arts

How to Publicly Apologize

Why, after al the political, corporate, and celebrity apologies we've heard in the last generation, is it still so hard to say, "I'm sorry"?
Audubon Bald Eagle
Plants & Animals

The Early Audubon Society Helped Bridge the Gap between Men and Women Conservationists

The man who formed the first Audubon Society was educated by Audubon's widow and found a way to unite men and women in the conservation movement.
Sophie Scholl
Politics & History

Sophie Scholl and the Legacy of Resistance

Sophie Scholl has become the face of resistance to Nazism. That took decades, as the legacy of resistance itself was resisted.
Soldier eating matzo, 1940s
Education & Society

Matzo and Oreos: Keeping Kosher in America

The koshering of America's food industry has mostly gone unnoticed. Yet most people who specifically buy kosher foods are not Jewish.
Turkish elections
Politics & History

The Turkish Origins of the “Deep State”

The "deep state" idea of a shadowy parallel government, heard much in the news now, seems to be a concept borrowed from the Turkish experience.
Bush and Rumsfeld
Politics & Government

The Backfire Effect

The backfire effect is when people double-down on their beliefs even when these beliefs are shown to be factually incorrect.
PG Wodehouse cover
Language & Literature

P.G. Wodehouse, Great American Humorist?

Should P.G. Wodehouse, creator of the ditzy Wooster and inimitable Jeeves, be considered an American humorist as well as a master of British farce?
Aurora Alaska
Politics & History

Buying Alaska

It’s the 150th anniversary of the Alaska Purchase. Why did the Americans want all that ice and why were the Russians willing to sell?
1596 Mercator map of Scotland
Politics & History

Is Scotland a Nation?

What is Scotland, a country and/or nation, or just a region within Great Britain, a piece of the United Kingdom? Let's explore Scots nationalism.
Nazis Kurt Daluege, Heinrich Himmler, Ernst Röhm in 1933
Politics & History

Ernst Röhm, The Highest-Ranking Gay Nazi

Ernst Röhm, the highest-ranking gay Nazi, presents an interesting study in the construction and containment of masculinity by the right.
Liberian flag
Politics & History

Liberia: A Primer

Liberia, named for liberty in 1824, has had a rough go of it since being colonized by African-Americans settled there by the American Colonization Society.
Woodrow Wilson 1912
Politics & Government

Woodrow Wilson, Mental Health, and the White House

The historical debate about the nature of Woodrow Wilson's health is intertwined with questions about his self-righteous character.
DMZ mural
Politics & History

Why There Are Two Koreas

The two Korean states, which both claim to be the legitimate government of the divided Korean Peninsula, are in the news again.
Lister spraying phenol over the wound while the doctors perform an operation.
Health

Joseph Lister’s Antiseptic Revolution

Joseph Lister's landmark articles on antiseptic surgery in the Lancet were published 150 years ago. The revolution was not immediate.

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