Eugene Debs in prison at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, overlaid with his 1920 presidential campaign button

A Million Americans Once Voted for an Incarcerated Socialist

Eugene Debs campaigned for both president and prison reform from a federal penitentiary. His critiques of the prison system still resonate.
Photograph of a man standing on a path among trees one and one-half years old growing next to an irrigation canal and headgate in Imperial Valley. He is wearing a white hat.

The Irrigationist

Canadian-born George Chaffey was instrumental in bringing irrigation and the consequent development of the “agriburb” to California…and Australia…and Israel.
Donna Summer, 1976

The Year The Grammys Honored Disco

In 1980, The Grammys gave disco its own category, but the genre was already receding into invisibility.
Captain America punching a Nazi

Captain America and Wonder Woman, Anti-Fascist Heroes

Who needs black clothing to fight fascism when red, white, and blue will do quite nicely?
Laurette Luez

Hollywood Cast Laurette Luez as a One-Size-Fits-All “Exotic”

Like many actresses of her day, Laurette Luez was expected to be a beautiful siren in skimpy clothing who could be from almost anywhere—just not here.
An advertisement for Schlitz Beer, 1967

Selling Hedonism in Postwar America

The hedonism of American consumer culture is the result of deliberate efforts by mid-twentieth century marketing experts.
Map of Warren County, KY

Maps Showed People Their Worlds

In the 19th century, most Americans weren't used to seeing maps of their communities. New forms of color lithography changed all that.
Women gardeners

When Gardens Replaced Children

Historian Robin Veder explains that the way we associate female nurturing with gardens goes back to the way ideas about gender and work changed in the mid-nineteenth century.
Garden view "The House of the Seven Gables", Salem, Mass. The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. "Garden view "The House of the Seven Gables", Salem, Mass." New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed March 10, 2016. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-9dc0-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

A Garden of One’s Own

As the suburbs emerged in the 19th century, middle-class women, barred from waged labor, took to their gardens to remain productive. 
Susan B. Anthony dollar coin

The Feminist History of Prohibition

A look at the feminist roots of the temperance movement.