Red Scares and Ren Fairs (Smithsonian Magazine)
by Gillian Bagwell
Renaissance fairs may harken back to Elizabethan times, but their origin story lies in McCarthyism and the birth of the 1960s counterculture.

The Lost Treasure of Hell Gate (Atlas Obscura)
by Joaquim Salles
In 1780, a British ship navigating New York City’s East River sank below the water, possibly carrying a large quantity of gold coins. Ever since then, people have been braving the treacherous waters of Hell Gate to hunt for the lost treasure.

Ancient Greece for Modern Readers (Slate)
by Johanna Hanink
Emily Wilson received an unusual amount of popular interest with her translation of the Odyssey. Now, she’s turned to the Iliad, a very different kind of story. (See our Iliad-inspired reading list!)

The Age of the Reboot (Public Books)
by Madeline Ullrich
At a time when television is struggling with its business model, reboots are often seen as a safe bet. They can also offer a new lens for looking at the entertainment we enjoyed in the past, complicating questions about why we watch what we do.

The Pan-African Roots of a Civil Rights Hero (Black Perspectives)
by Karen Cook Bell
Mary McLeod Bethune was a prominent civil rights activist and advocate for Black women in the first half of the twentieth century. Less well known is her Pan-Africanist intellectual framework, which connected the local concerns of Black people in the US South with struggles in Haiti and Liberia.

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