The Power of the Purse
The first time a president withheld funds for something approved by Congress, it led to the Impoundment Control Act. We’ll soon find out if that law has teeth.
Tantalus, Pac-Man, and Unsated Hungers
What does a violent, ancient Greek myth reveal about our modern addiction to technology and the enduring power of stories?
Man of Science, Man of God
In The Water-Babies, Charles Kingsley parodied the dogmatic belief held by many in Victorian England that faith and reason are incompatible.
In the Ladies’ Loo
Gender-segregated bathrooms tell a story about who is and who is not welcome in public life.
Henry Cowell’s One True Desire
To “live in the whole world of music” was all the influential, experimental composer wanted—and did, even while imprisoned at San Quentin.
The Age of Wonder Meets the Age of Information
What can past eras of information overload teach students about critically consuming content in the present?
Fear and Fertility in Elif Shafak’s Black Milk
Shafak exposes her terror over motherhood’s potential to devour creativity—a panic she imagines sharing with a parade of literary forebears.
Feminist Bookstore News by the Numbers
Now part of Reveal Digital, Feminist Bookstore News was a vital source of information (and gossip) amid a flourishing in publishing fifty years ago.
Hoosier Cabinets and the Dream of Efficiency
Out of Indiana came a beloved wooden innovation that helped change the status of the kitchen in the American home.
Self-Publishing and the Black American Narrative
Bryan Sinche’s Published by the Author explores the resourcefulness of Black writers of the nineteenth century.