How the New Deal Documented Southern Food Cultures
Photographers and writers hired by the US government presented the foodways of the South to a wide audience.
How Crime Stories Foiled Reform in Victorian Britain
Harsh punishments were declining in the nineteenth century. Then came sensationalist news coverage of a reputed crime wave.
Science and Slavery in Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko
In one of the first novels written in English, a West African prince, fascinated with navigation, boards a ship for a fateful journey.
A New History, Fabulous Viruses, and Future Creatures
Well-researched stories from The Atlantic, Black Perspectives, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
The King of Mail-Order Muscles
Flab, begone! Earle Edwin Liederman wanted men to learn his vaudeville-strongman secrets—for a not-so-low price.
Why National Pride Could Make or Break Climate Action
Nationalism and environmentalism have a history of pairing in dark ways. What does this mean for international climate negotiations?
Drunk as a Lord? OK, if You’re a Lord
Where does class-based hypocrisy over substance use come from? Look to the seventeenth century.
How Latin Camp Rocked the New York Underground
Puerto Rican queers produced theater and film that made them mainstays of the New York underground arts movement of the 1950s and ’60s.
Why the Belowground Ecosystem Matters
Trees get all the credit. But for biodiversity, look down, too.