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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.

Mussolini and the Quadrumviri during the March on Rome in 1922: from left to right: Michele Bianchi, Emilio De Bono, Italo Balbo and Cesare Maria De Vecchi

Authoritarianism’s Hidden Root Cause

The greater the inequality of a society, the greater the risk of authoritarianism.
Leonardo da Vinci botanical study, circa 1490

Leonardo Da Vinci, Artist/Scientist

Leonardo was the first scientific illustrator.
Ossian Receiving the Ghosts of Fallen French Heroes, Anne-Louis Girodet, 1805

Ossian, Rude Bard of the North

Ossian once rivaled Homer in the Western literary canon. Whatever happened to him?
A conversation between Süddeutsche Zeitung and the anonymous source.

A Short Primer on the Panama Papers

The so-called “Panama Papers” files released last weekend detail wide-spread tax-evasion among the world’s elites. From Russia to Iceland, ...
Mystery airship The Saint Paul Globe (Minn) April 13 1897

The History of UFOs

UFOs are much older than the Cold War's flying saucers. These 1897 and 1909 sightings of flying machines were the talk of the town. 
Icebergs in Antarctica

Antarctica: Love of a Cold Climate

Can images make us love an unlovable place like Antarctica?
Twisting a man's ears.

The Return of Torture

After being made illegal in the 19th century, why did torture return in the 20th century and why does it continue into the present?
Copernicus

Copernicus’s Body Identified by Stray Hair

Stuck in a book for centuries, strands of Copernicus's hair helped identify his body in 2005.
Francisco "Pancho" Villa (1877–1923), Mexican revolutionary general, wearing bandoliers in front of an insurgent camp. By Bain News Service, publisher.

Why Did Pancho Villa Invade the U.S.?

The 100th anniversary of Pancho Villa's invasion of the U.S. raises the question of why he did it.
Elizabeth Eisenstein

In Memoriam: Elizabeth L. Eisenstein

Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, who passed away this year at the age of 92, played a significant role in shaping our understanding of the print revolution. 
Iron Curtain

Revisiting Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” Speech

The famous "Iron Curtain" speech that propelled us into the Cold War highlights Churchill's near roguish fight to challenge the U.S.S.R.
Screenshot of Flower from the trailer for the film Bambi.

The Problematic Influence of Disney’s “Bambi”

Bambi has had a pervasive influence on how Americans view nature, and that might not be such a good thing.
Mary Somerville

Mary Somerville, Queen of 19th Century Science

Mary Somerville, one of the first women scientists and science writers, came to be known after her death as the "queen of 19th century science." 
Mrs. Rose O'Brine works in the bookstore at the John Birch Society in Belmont, Mass., April 14, 1976. (AP Photo/J. Walter Green)

John Birch Had Nothing to Do with the John Birch Society

The real John Birch, the first American casualty of the Cold War, would not have been pleased with his name becoming the beacon of the extreme Right.
Chief of Staff Lutze visits the new Italian settlements in Libya. The Chief of Staff and His Excellency Russo inspect ranks of Askaris (native soldiers) in Nalut.

Libya’s Italian Connection

The intimate historical connection between Italy and Libya. 
Cover of English Renaissance Poetry: A Collection of Shorter Poems

Revisiting John Williams, Novelist and Editor

Today marks the publication of English Renaissance Poetry, an anthology of poems selected by the novelist John Williams. 
Painted eyes on a speckled background

The Perpetual Paranoid Style in American Politics

The "paranoid style" isn't so much periodical as it is perpetual. 
Book of love

Who Wrote the Book of Love?

Did the troubadours write the book of love, or just a kind of love poetry? 
Photograph of Charles Darwin by Maull and Polyblank for the Literary and Scientific Portrait Club (1855).

Charles Darwin In His Own Words

Some collected letters and observations from the great naturalist, Charles Darwin. 
Illustration of Chaucer

The Love Birds of Valentine’s Day

A little history behind the love birds that inspired Chaucer to invent Valentine's Day, the well-known celebration of love. 
Grandchildren of slaves.

A Formerly Enslaved Woman Successfully Won a Case for Reparations in 1783

In one of the earliest examples of reparations, an ex-slave named Belinda petitioned the government and was granted an annuity.
It is the bean, that we mean, so white and lean.

What It Was Like To Be an African-American Soldier During the Civil War

What was it like to be one of the 186,017 African Americans who served in the Union Army during the Civil War?
Blackfish. G. H. Nickerson, Provincetown, Cape Cod Views.

Why Don’t Americans Eat Whale?

Whales have been used for everything but meat in this country. Why is that?
The great resettlement of the ethnic Germans from the East began its second phase. Following the Baltic Germans, well over 100,000 Volhynian Germans came back into the Reich. The men started the trek to the new settlements, while the women and children found a caring reception in the large transit camps.

The Largest Forced Migration In European History

Trump's comments on deporting 11 million undocumented migrants have precedent: the forced migration of millions of ethnic-Germans in the aftermath of WWII.
The road to liberty; a station on the Underground Railroad.

The Secret Order Behind the Underground Railroad

William Lambert and George De Baptiste, free-born black men, used the underground railroad to help slaves escape to British Canada.