How to be a Modern Autocrat
In the twenty-first century, dictators are less likely than their predecessors to use violence to suppress dissent, cultivating instead “informational autocracies.”
Joseph Conrad’s Travel Stories Weren’t Black and White
Conrad’s celebration of imperial exploration is accompanied by an acknowledgment that such feats often go hand-in-hand with oppression and exploitation.
Eulalie Mandeville’s Fortune in Court Records
Court records can function as a kind of archive for those without any other paper trail in history: free people of color and the enslaved.
Is There an LGBTQ+ Canon?
An English professor considers the questions raised about selecting queer works for study and discussion when planning a course on LGBTQ+ literature.
The US Army as a Slaveholding Institution
Until the Civil War, US Army officers relied on enslaved servants even while serving in “free states.”
12 Poems by Frank O’Hara
Plus his manifesto on Personism and writings about O’Hara by Ted Berrigan, Joseph LeSueur, and Joe Brainard.
Tradition in Turmoil: Sugar Maple and Climate Change
With harvests dependent on the spring freeze-thaw cycle, the maple industry is seeking ways to mitigate damage wrought by a changing climate.
Caitlin D. Wylie on the Hidden Labor of STEM Research
An interview with Caitlin D. Wylie, a social scientist who analyzes “behind-the-science work” to understand how knowledge is produced and who produces it.
Joseph McCarthy in Wheeling, West Virginia: Annotated
Senator Joseph McCarthy built his reputation on fear-mongering, smear campaigns, and falsehoods about government employees and their associates.