Tutivillus Is Watching You
For medieval scribes, mistakes couldn’t be easily shrugged off, as Tutivillus, the stickler demon, was always looking over their shoulders.
Tod Browning’s Freaks
Freaks asked audiences to think about the exploitative display of human difference while also demonstrating that the sideshow was a locus of community.
The Long and Winding Island
New York’s Long Island has long served as a backdrop for social and political conflicts between the newly arrived and the established residents.
Building De Stijl Style
Piet Mondrian, co-founder of De Stijl, argued that the art movement wasn’t ready for architecture. Theo van Doesburg and others believed it was. Who was right?
Honoring Indigenous Peoples’ Day: A Reading List
With scholarship on Indigenous knowledge, environmental justice, resistance, and decolonization, this list honors Native sovereignty and self-determination.
The Bowling Alley: It’s a Woman’s World
Even when it was considered socially unacceptable, American women were knocking down pins on the local lanes.
Grenada: When the Cold War Got Spicy
The 1983 invasion of Grenada raised questions about the legitimacy of American reactions to a communist presence on the island.
Is AI Good for the Planet?
The algorithms that promise to predict wildfires and optimize energy grids are powered by servers that drink up rivers and belch out more carbon than cars.
The Legendary Children’s Librarian of Harlem
Raised in a family of storytellers, Augusta Baker continued that tradition, imparting a love of books to readers of all ages.
The Reichstag Building Rises
Built at the end of the 1800s and rebuilt a century later, Berlin’s Reichstag building has proven a malleable symbol of political and social values.