India’s Coronavirus Migration Crisis
Widespread market failure and unemployment triggered by the coronavirus pandemic have set off a crisis of domestic migration in India.
“The Public Health” in 1840
A pamphlet published in 1840 advocates a four-pronged approach to public healthcare that sounds remarkably like our own.
The Undercover Abolitionists of the 18th Century
Since many people considered them an off-putting radical sect, some Quaker abolitionists worked behind the scenes to eradicate slavery.
3 Women Philosophers of the Enlightenment
They shaped the history of Western philosophical thought. It's past time to recognize their contributions.
Oscar Wilde’s Pamphlet: “Children in Prison and Other Cruelties of Prison Life”
Wilde's description is heart-wrenching, but that doesn't hold him back from the usual wit and drama that characterize his writing.
William Blake, Radical Abolitionist
Blake’s works offer an alternative to the failures of the Enlightenment, which couldn’t muster a consistent argument for abolition.
When Societies Put Animals on Trial
Animal trials were of two kinds: (1) secular suits against individual creatures; and (2) ecclesiastic cases against groups of vermin.
When the Temperance Movement Opened Saloons
Charles Sumner Eaton's “Temperance Spa” served alternative adult beverages like coffee, egg phosphates, and "Moxie Nerve Food," all in the name of health.
Edmund Burke and the Birth of Traditional Conservatism
Edmund Burke (1729-1797) is one of the philosophical fountainheads of modern conservatism. But he didn't start out that way.
Meet the Secretary Bird, Snake Nemesis
If snakes have nightmares, they most likely include secretary birds (or secretarybirds)—so-called because the birds’ crests, when flattened against the head, ...