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.

The back of a taxi in a busy street

Taxis, Ride-sharing Apps, and Safety: An Age-Old Debate

Current controversies over ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft may not be all that new.

Goya, The Speed and Daring of Juanito Apiñani in the Ring of Madrid 1815-16 Etching and aquatint

Art & Art History

Goya, The Moors, and The Bulls

An exhibit of Francisco Goya's paintings and prints at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts showcases an amazing talent and a personality who lived through extraordinary and frequently horrifying times.

Back of a soldier's helmet

Politics & History

The Last Formal Declaration of War

The last time Congress formally declared war was in World War II.

Robert Louis Stevenson and His Wife, an oil painting, by John Singer Sargent from 1885

The Culture of Tuberculosis

When perusing the biographies of artists, you'll notice that a large number of them had tuberculosis.

A polar bear walks on a frozen tundra

Plants & Animals

Anniversary of the Endangered Species Act

41 years after the Endangered Species act, what is its legacy?

Stockings hung above a fireplace next to a Christmas tree and presents

Politics & History

Oh, Christmas Tree!

The ubiquitous Christmas tree has a history, and it isn't biblical.

A modern street in Cuba with vintage cars on the road

Politics & History

Cuban-American Relations Through The Years

After 55 years, diplomatic relations have been re-established between the United States and Cuba.

A Cliff Swallow with sand in its mouth

Plants & Animals

Driving the Evolution of Cliff Swallows

Charles R. Brown and Mary Bomberger Brown have been studying cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) in southwestern Nebraska since the early 1980s.

Paperback copies J.R.R. Tolkien's classics: The Hobbit; The Fellowship of the Ring; The Two Towers; and The Return of the King

J. R. R. Tolkien the Philologist

Before The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien was a philologist, a specialist in historical texts.

Vultures on tree

Plants & Animals

How The Near Extinction of Indian Vultures Led to Disaster

The populations of the nine species of Indian vultures began to plummet in the 1990s

British flag

Politics & Government

The Anglo-American Relationship: Not Always So Special

The "special relationship" between the United States and the United Kingdom followed a very long century of special enmity.

"I Have a Dream". engraved on a step of the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Politics & History

Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Paradox of Nonviolence

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Nobel Peace Prize was controversial—and that controversy had nothing to do with his age.

Title page of 1914's journal, The New Republic

Politics & Government

The New Republic and the Idea of Progress

The recent shakeup at the The New Republic reminds us that journals of opinion have histories, too

Chains

Politics & History

The Modern History of Slavery

The Walk Free Foundation recently reported that 35 million people in the world today are trapped in different forms of slavery.

Black and white photograph of Leon Trotsky looking directly at the camera

Politics & History

Trotsky’s New York Minute

Trotsky in New York.

A troop of mushrooms

Plants & Animals

Mushrooms!

Mushrooms may seem like humble life forms, but they are very much wrapped up in the human experience.

Black and white illustration of men dueling from the 1899 bestseller, Richard Carvel

The Other Winston Churchill

Do you know about Winston Churchill, the American novelist? Now you do.

Let's Talk Turkey

Politics & History

Let’s Talk Turkey

First of all, why the name "turkey?"

A shelf of weathered leather bound books

The First English Books

In the rare book world, the earliest printed books are known as incunables or incunabula.

Pressed chestnut leaves

Plants & Animals

When Chestnuts Ruled Our Forests

Once plentiful, chestnuts were virtually extirpated from the forests of eastern North America by WWII.

The sun rising over the Earth's horizon

Science & Technology

Welcome to the Anthropocene

What is the anthropocene?

Politics & History

Nellie Bly, Girl Reporter

A look back on Nellie Bly and the era of "stunt-reporting."

City Hall Station in New York with a symmetrical tiled pattern on the arches and ceiling

Politics & History

Rediscovering the Guastavinos

Rediscovering the Gustavinos contributions to architecture.

Kurdistan

Politics & History

Kurds: In the Middle of the Middle East

A brief history of Kurds and Middle Eastern politics.

A small bird on a thin tree branch

Plants & Animals

Winter Coping Strategies for Animals – and for Us

The winter coping strategies of birds and humans are not so different.

Editors' Picks

Education & Society

The Wild West of Papal Conclaves

In the sixteenth and seventeenth century, the death of a pope led to all sorts of chaos, from the destruction of art to armed violence in the streets.

Science & Technology

He Spoke for the Trees (and Also the Soil)

A champion of agroforestry, J. Russell Smith argued for the restoration of forests as key to sustainable agriculture in his seminal work Tree Crops.

Politics & History

Birth of A National Immigration Policy

Until the Civil War, regulating immigration to the US was left to individual states. That changed with Emancipation and the legal end of slavery.

Education & Society

Tips from a Librarian on Using JSTOR for Research

Follow these first steps toward success with your new research project.

Science & Technology

Caitlin D. Wylie on the Hidden Labor of STEM Research

An interview with Caitlin D. Wylie, a social scientist who analyzes “behind-the-science work” to understand how knowledge is produced and who produces it.