How Mentally Ill People Fight for Their Rights
In the 1970s, a time of mass deinstitutionalization, former patients came together to found the Psychiatric Inmates Liberation Movement.
Cane Toads, Dung Beetles, and Cork Hats
Predicting the effects of introducing a species into an ecosystem is difficult. Mitigating those effects later is even more so. Just ask Australia.
How to Remember the Alamo?
A historian’s childhood visit to the Texas monument prompts questions about history, memory, and multiculturalism.
Seeing America in 1900
Posters and postcards showcasing unique destinations and sights in the United States helped homogenize the tourist landscape of the early twentieth century.
How Wattstax Ushered in a New Era of Black Art
Organized in the aftermath of the 1965 Watts uprising, the music festival showed that something powerful was happening in the Black community.
The Rise and Fall of “True Crime” Radio Dramas
Depictions of poor, non-white victims and informants led working-class and rural listeners to turn against the genre.
Beatrice Hastings: The Forgotten Modernist
Marginalized in early histories of Modernist literature, Hastings left a mark on one of the most influential literary magazines of the early twentieth century.
Happiness is a Warm Democracy
A greater exposure to democracy leads to a higher level of self-reported happiness.
After the Volcano Erupts
The catastrophic eruption of Japan’s Ontake-san allowed residents to reconsider and reinvent their relationships to the mountainous landscape.
Roger Ebert vs. Video Games
The film critic’s unconsidered observation about Doom touched off a firestorm that continues to burn for gamers and digital media critics.