Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson’s Speech on the Indian Removal Act: Annotated

In December 1830, two months after the passage of the Indian Removal Act, President Andrew Jackson used his annual Congressional message to celebrate the policy.
A painting of Hong Tianguifu being captured

Taiping: China’s Nineteenth-Century Civil War

Partially coinciding with the American Civil War, the Taiping “Rebellion” in China was one of the most destructive conflicts in history.
Cropped raised hand of male student with friends and teacher in classroom

9 Ways to Create an “Intellectually Humble” Classroom

A university faculty member offers practical pedagogical steps to incorporate in the classroom to foster an intellectually humble environment.
Cyrano de Bergerac

The Seventeenth-Century Space Race (for the Soul)

The astronomical discoveries of the 1600s—such as Saturn’s rings—prompted new questions about the structure of the cosmos and humans’ place in it.
Little island full of money

Islands in the Cash Stream 

Tiny island states, usually former British colonies, have been re-colonized by global finance and now depend on “archipelago capitalism” for survival.
Map of the Missouri Compromise, 1820

Missouri Compromise of 1820: Annotated

The “compromise” attempted to answer the question of whether the Missouri territory would be admitted to the Union as a “slave” or “free” state.
The first page of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution

The Fourteenth Amendment: Annotated

Adopted in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution addresses citizenship rights, due process, and equal protection under the law.
Soviet political leader Joseph Stalin (1879 - 1953) at work in his office, with a portrait of Karl Marx hanging on the wall over his head, April 1932.

Getting Pickled With Joseph Stalin

The Soviet dictator was notorious for hosting drinking parties where vodka loosened the inhibitions of associates and got them to reveal their secrets.
Hunters in the Snow (Winter) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

The Climate Canvasses of the Little Ice Age

Low Country artists of the late Renaissance and Early Baroque eras captured the happiness and hardships of snowy winters—an ever rarer phenomenon now.
Dr Spurzheim phrenology chart

What Skulls Told Us

The pseudoscience phrenology swept the popular imagination, and its practitioners made a mint preying on prejudices, gullibility, and misinformation.