Bourbon Country
Examining the ingredients—time, grain, government regulations—that have made bourbon an enduring national favorite.
A Slap, Followed by a Duel
Dueling was a dangerous, ritualized response to a real (or perceived) slight. It may also have been a means of proving one's social and economic capital.
Even in Kazakhstan, Bitcoin Can’t Escape Geopolitics
People in Kazakhstan have been protesting energy prices, and met with violence by the government. What does Bitcoin have to do with it?
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.