The Indonesian Frontier Town Named for a Jungle Vampire
The city of Pontianak is notable for sharing its name with a vengeful folkloric revenant known by various monikers across the Malay Archipelago.
German Song in America
In the late 1800s, German American singing festivals united German immigrant communities and brought new kinds of cultural activities to the United States.
Christiaan Huygens and the Scientific Secrets of Saturn
Seventeenth-century science was so competitive that Christiaan Huygens used a cipher to conceal his Saturn observations when sharing them with interlocutors.
How Was the Wheel Invented?
Computer simulations reveal the unlikely birth of a world-changing technology nearly 6,000 years ago.
Copenhagen: Bike City from Back in the Day
How did Copenhagen become a “city of cyclists,” where a third of all journeys are by bicycle?
Exporting the Convict Clause: Slaves of the State in the Canal Zone
The criminalization of Blackness enabled by the Thirteenth Amendment brought chain gangs to the construction projects of the Panama Canal Zone.
Life According to Phosphorus
Phosphorus is essential for fertilizing high-yield agriculture. The US domestic supply, restricted to Florida, is expected to run out in a couple of decades.
Of Heights and Men
Given its strong gendered associations, it may be surprising that height hasn’t been well studied by historians.
Coffee for the Resistance
During Indira Gandhi’s autocratic Emergency in 1975, one New Delhi coffeehouse became a key gathering place for opponents of her politics.
Juneberry: A Summer Sweet for People, Pollinators, and Birds
For millennia, Indigenous peoples in North America derived sustenance from the juneberry, known also as the misâskwatômin, serviceberry, shadbush, or saskatoon.