Climate Justice as Climate Reparations
Climate justice activists want countries of the Global North to make up for centuries of uneven industrialization, deforestation, extraction, and consumption.
A Pint for the Alewives
Until the Plague decimated Europe and reconfigured society, brewing beer and selling it was chiefly the domain of the fairer sex.
Himmelsbriefe: Heaven-Sent Chain Letters
For more than a thousand years, people have used letters allegedly written by Christ as both doctrinal evidence and magical charms.
The Nineteenth-Century Banjo
Derived from an instrument brought to America by enslaved Africans, the banjo experienced a surge of popularity during the New Woman movement of the late 1800s.
Dervla Murphy: The Godmother of Hitting the Road
Perhaps the greatest female travel writer of her generation, Murphy defied the narrative of the dutiful Irish daughter—and motherhood—to find freedom.
The Three Cs of Bucharest
Three big Cs dominate the history of Romania and its capital city, Bucharest. You may know communism and Ceaușescu, but what about Cuza?
The Unusual, Unexpected Erechtheion
The Parthenon embodies the ideals of perfection Classical Greeks sought from architecture. The neighboring Erechtheion offers something else.
What Skulls Told Us
The pseudoscience phrenology swept the popular imagination, and its practitioners made a mint preying on prejudices, gullibility, and misinformation.
Know This About Net Zero
The term "net zero" remains ill-defined among the public. So what is it? Why is it necessary, and how does it fall short of solving all our climate woes?