An illustration from Aleksandr Volkov’s Wizard of the Emerald City

Twin Curtains: Oz and the USSR

Aleksandr Volkov’s The Wizard of the Emerald City reimagined L. Frank Baum’s classic, imbuing the story with a love of labor for readers in the Eastern bloc.
"Noah Webster, The Schoolmaster of the Republic," print by Root & Tinker, 1886

Webster’s Dictionary 1828: Annotated

Noah Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language declared Americans free from the tyranny of British institutions and their vocabularies.
An image generated using Adobe Firefly

AI and the Creative Process: Part One

How does generative artificial intelligence upend conventional understandings of who is and what makes for a true artist?
from the cover of Radio-Electronics, June 1949, Volume 20, Number 9

Can Radio Really Educate?

In the 1920s, radio was an exciting new mass medium. It was known for providing entertainment, but educators wondered if it could also be used for education.
kids with medals

Are We Spoiling Our Kids with Too Much Praise?

Is the “gold medal for all” approach fueling a generation of narcissists?
Close-up of the dictionary entry to 'colour'

Yas Queen! It’s the Spelling Reform School for Wayward Words

Debates over English spelling reform have existed for centuries.
Scene of a parade from the 2014 movie Annie.

Our Obsession with Orphans: A Short History from Jane Eyre to Annie

Little Orphan Annie is the latest in a sequence of pop culture foundlings, but America’s orphans of the Great Depression weren’t endearing at all.