Plough Monday
Or, how to follow the Christmas holiday with a festival of pranks, trick-or-treating, and drunken revelry.
A Holiday Pantomime
With origins in the theater of the early eighteenth century, “panto” remains a crucial element of the holiday season in Great Britain and Ireland.
In the Shipyards of San Francisco
Photographer E. F. Joseph captured the dignity of the hundreds of Black women and men who worked on SS George Washington Carver during World War II.
The Devilish History of Devil’s Island
French Guiana's Devil’s Island has witnessed some of humanity’s hardest moments, from the brutalities of slavery to the punishments of penal servitude.
Çatalhöyük: Its Story Continues
Our understanding of the Neolithic city of Çatalhöyük continues to evolve as archaeologists challenge inherited biases in the face of new material evidence.
The Supernatural Horses That Fascinated Chinese Emperors
In the second century BCE, Han Dynasty Emperor Wu so desired a herd of “blood-sweating” horses from Central Asia that he was willing to wage war over them.
Reasons for Re-Enacting at the Renaissance Faire
Why do we love donning period costumes and re-enacting our history through mock battles, pioneer villages, and Renaissance Faires?
The “Vanishing Types” of Doris Ulmann
As her extensive body of work shows, Ulmann felt the loss of an imagined simpler time and tried to preserve it with her camera.
Jura: George Orwell’s Scottish Hideaway
Discover the austere island retreat where Big Brother was born.
A Postcolonial Preah Vihear
The debate over who “owns” Preah Vihear dates to the early twentieth century, when the French government drew the border between Cambodia and Siam (Thailand).