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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.

Soldiers relaxing
Arts & Culture

A Glossary of WWI Soldier Slang

A glossary of slang used by U.S. servicemen in World War 1.
Civil War Attire
Politics & History

How the Word “Shoddy” Became an Anti-Semitic Slur

Shoddy came to have anti-Semitic overtones during the American Civil War.
Deborah Eisenberg, short story writer, New York, NY.
Arts & Culture

The Stories of Deborah Eisenberg

Two short stories by Deborah Eisenberg.
Cover of "Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village" by Ronald Blythe
Arts & Culture

The Re-Release of a Classic

A new American edition of Ronald Blythe's Akenfield reminds us why it became one of the founding texts of oral history.
George Kennan 1885
Politics & History

The American Who Exposed the Tsar

American supporters of revolutionaries in Russia in the late 19th century contributed to the downfall of the Tsarism.
Frank Sinatra was arrested when he was 19 years old for the crime of "seduction" in New Jersey.
Arts & Culture

Frank Sinatra’s Radical Past

On the occaision of Frank Sinatra's centennial, we look into his radical past.
Sperm whale
Plants & Animals

What Is Ambergris and Where Does It Come From?

Ambergris, a waxy-like substance found in perfumes, has a unique origin.
Thomé de Gamond's plan of 1856 for a cross-Channel link, with a port/airshaft on the Varne sandbank mid-Channel
Politics & History

The Channel Tunnel Is a Product of Politics, Not Engineering

The history of the Channel Tunnel is the really the contentious history between France and England.
The Statue of Liberty.
Politics & History

The Poem at the Foot of Lady Liberty

Emma Lazarus's famous poem welcoming refugees to America was written during a period of nativist backlash against immigrants.
Presidential portrait of Woodrow Wilson
Politics & History

Understanding Woodrow Wilson’s Racism

Woodrow Wilson's racism was of its time, and so were critiques of it by the likes of political ally turned critic, W.E.B. Du Bois.
Farm workers harvesting vegetable crop.
Politics & Government

Deportation: A History

Operation Wetback was another example of deportation being used as a social and political method of control.
From left: Star Wars movie poster 1977, Star Wars: Phantom Menace movie poster 1999, Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie poster 2015
Arts & Culture

The War On Star Wars

The force isn't for everyone.
Mandarin orange
Health

Ignoring the Cure for Scurvy

It may have altered the outcome of the Revolutionary War.
A bowl of mashed sweet potatoes.
Politics & History

Considering the Sweet Potato

The sweet potato is a New World food that spread around the world, including across the Pacific before the Europeans got there.
Hitler speaks, 1. February 1933
Politics & Government

What Does the Word “Propaganda” Mean?

It has been put to many uses.
William Shakespeare's King Lear
Arts & Culture

When King Lear Was a Rom-Com

The King Lear people saw for almost two centuries was very different from Shakespeare's.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Politics & Government

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Pulpit

Judging from his public speeches, Franklin D. Roosevelt--aka FDR--may have been our most religious 20th century President.
Persecution of Gypsies in occupied Yugoslavia [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Politics & History

The Persecution of the Romani by the Nazis

Like the Jews, the Romani were victims of the Nazi's ideology of race.
The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo


Art & Art History

Art and the Spoils of War

The Nazis weren't the first looters of European art treasures.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton in her later years


Politics & History

Celebrating Feminist Pioneer Elizabeth Cady Stanton

We highlight two of Elizabeth Cady Stanton's essays on the bicentennial of her birth.
Electrolytically refined pure (99.989 %) superficially oxidized lead nodules and a high purity (99.989 %) 1 cm3 lead cube for comparison.
Science & Technology

Lead: Our Four-Thousand Year Old Pollutant

The history of lead pollution goes back 4000 years.
Bergonic chair for giving general electric treatment for psychological effect, in psycho-neurotic cases. World War 1 era.
Health

Why Electroshock Therapy Isn’t Bad for You

Electroconvulsive therapy, or electroshock, has a bad reputation, but medically its efficacy is well documented, even if nobody knows how it works.
Thomas Couture - Horace and Lydia
Politics & History

Two Enemies Bound by the Poet Horace

How Horace brought to enemies together during WWII and what role the poet played in the post-war cultural identity of Europe.
Workers are dwarfed by the 10-foot Cardiff Giant as they dig him out of his "grave" in Cardiff, N.Y., in this 1869 file photo. AP Photo/Farmers Museum, HO)
Politics & History

The Cardiff Giant: The Biggest Hoax of the 19th Century

The Cardiff Giant was the greatest hoax in an era of hoaxes.
Holotype of Diplazium grammatoides Fée; Verified by George R. Proctor, 1985/10
Plants & Animals

Botanist and Murderer? The Strange End of George R. Proctor

The obituary of noted botanist George R. Proctor reveals a surprising story.

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