Stamp Collecting as Metaphor for the Free Market
The hobby was originally pursued by middle-class women and children. But its resemblance to capitalist values made it attractive to men.
The Market Will Bare It: Transnational Nude Tourism
As Europeans recovered from the devastation of World War II, nude beaches appeared in France.
Resilience: The Basics of a Concept
From the ecological to the social, “resilience” is a buzzword for our crisis-ridden age. But what is resilience exactly, and where did the idea emerge from?
What If a Shrinking Economy Wasn’t a Disaster?
The degrowth movement is building a vision of a society where economies would get smaller by design—and people would be better off for it.
Why Are Random Trials So Common in Anti-Poverty Work?
Three economists who have devoted their careers to studying poverty alleviation won the Nobel Prize in economics. How did their methods catch on?
Why the Dakota Only Traded among People with Kinship Bonds
“Trapping was not a ‘business for profit’ among the Dakota but primarily a social exchange,” one scholar writes.
Subscription Art for the 19th-Century Set
How the American Art-Union brought fine art to the people, via a subscription service, in the 1840s.
When Did We Start Paying to Park Our Cars?
A Curious Reader asks: When and why did parking become monetized?
Finding the Value of Housework
Can housework be anything other than drudgery? Maybe part of the problem is that we consistently devalue unpaid work.
Did the Great Recession Make Us Sick?
Mass layoffs, high unemployment, and home foreclosures resulted in declines in mental health. There may also be long-term effects that linger.