Crystal Eastman

“Now We Can Begin”: Annotated

To mark the 1920 ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, activist Crystal Eastman described the path to full freedom for American women.
A truck dumping biosolids in Geneva, Illinois

Waste Not, Want Not

Sewage is a vital part of a circular economy—and we have the tech to make good use of it. Why don’t we?
UK research organisation Mass-Observation conducts a survey at the Nuffield Centre, a Service Club in Soho, to find out the preferred 'pin-up girl' of a number of servicemen, September 1944.

Yes, Mass Observation Still Wants to Know about Your Life

The organization has collected interviews and diaries recording ordinary life in Britain over the course of decades. A pandemic won't stop it now.
Young girls chant as activists rally for climate action at Sydney Town Hall on January 10, 2020 in Sydney, Australia.

The Linguistic Anatomy of a Political Firestorm

The prime minister of Australia has a background in marketing, but with the bush fire crisis, his manipulation of language is only getting him so far.
An angry mob in front of a computer screen

Cancel Culture Is Chaotic Good

Cancel culture may prove to be the most memorable linguistic trend of the past decade.
Vintage Portrait of two Babies in an Old Fashioned Antique Baby Carriage Buggy

This Isn’t the First Baby Bust

And it's unlikely to be the last. One scholar looks at the factors that contributed to the increase in childlessness at the turn of the twentieth century.
A person standing between bookshelves in a university library.

What Makes a Fair College Admissions Process?

In the wake of the college admissions scandal, scholars go back to the drawing board to answer this most central question.
Couney incubator

Coney Island’s Incubator Babies

Yes, you read that right.
Burning woman witchcraft

Where Witch Hunts Began

Although witch hunts are associated with 17th-century Salem, tens of thousands of "witches" were killed in Europe from the 13th century on.
Benedetta Carlini

Lesbianism (!) at the Convent

Mother Superior Benedetta Carlini, a visionary nun of Renaissance Italy, was accused of heresy and “female sodomy.”