From Didion to Hesiod: The Center Will Not Hold
Hesiod's poem reminds us that in the end, we must all make sense of our works and days, with the help of—or in spite of—the stories in our heads.
Mussolini’s Motherhood Factories
In fascist Italy, childbirth, breastfeeding and motherhood were given a hybrid structure of industrial management and eugenicist biological essentialism.
The NYC –> RUS Yiddish Socialist Pipeline
At the turn of the twentieth century, Yiddish became the language of political organizing for Russian Jews, thanks to the flow of literature from New York.
A Slap, Followed by a Duel
Dueling was a dangerous, ritualized response to a real (or perceived) slight. It may also have been a means of proving one's social and economic capital.
Plant of the Month: Hyacinth
A 2021 shortage of hyacinth bulbs brings to mind the long and storied history of its botanical and economic import.
Urban Evolution, Daily Bread, and Nuclear War
Well-researched stories from Knowable Magazine, Wired and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
The Unfolding of the Woman’s Page
As women became the focus of advertising, newspapers began to broaden their offerings targeted to those areas of interest traditionally associated with them.
Northern Civil Rights and Republican Affirmative Action
One focus of the 1960s struggle for civil rights in the North were the construction industries of Philadelphia, New York and Cleveland.
Radhakamal Mukerjee and Indian Intellectual Independence
Sociologist Radhakamal Mukerjee helped shape a new view of sociology from an Indian perspective, contributing to the independence movement.
Banning The Grapes of Wrath in 1939 California
The Kern County, CA Board of Supervisors got a lesson in the Streisand Effect back in 1939, when they banned The Grapes of Wrath from their libraries and schools.