How the Himalayan Blackberry Took Over the Pacific Northwest
The tangled history of an invasive plant and a scientist’s troubling quest to engineer a more efficient natural world.
The Making of the Muscular Farmer
As automation transformed agriculture, advertisements increasingly celebrated physical strength and traditional masculine ideals.
The Rise and Fall of Britain’s Muskrat Empire
A fur-farming experiment unleashed a prolific rodent—and sparked one of the rare successful eradications of an invasive species.
The Nuclear Test Site That Advanced Oceanography
A postwar expedition to Bikini Atoll helped confirm Darwin’s theory of coral reef formation and reshaped the future of marine science.
When Did Presidents Start Traveling Abroad?
For more than a century, foreign trips have reflected America's changing role in the world—and presidents' political priorities.
How Sicilian Sulfur Fueled the Industrial Revolution
Britain’s textile boom depended on a resource extracted under brutal conditions far from its factories.
“Brewed with Blood”: The Coors Beercott of the 1970s
An unusual coalition transformed a labor dispute into one of the longest-running consumer protests in US history.
10 Modern and Contemporary Poems by Queer Writers
Love poems, political declarations, lyrical confessions, and formal experiments by Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, Ocean Vuong, Eileen Myles, and more.
How the Slave Trade Built Charleston
The city's prosperity grew from a system that trafficked human beings and turned their lives into profit.
Anatomy of a Galileo Forgery
It was hailed as a historic discovery—until a trail of clues revealed one of the rare-book world's most audacious scams.