Selfish Genes, Viking Women, and Glowing Oceans
Well-researched stories from Aeon, CrimeReads, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Joe Magarac, a Boss’s Idea of a Folk Hero?
The Paul Bunyan of the steel industry never went on strike. He was too tied up working the twenty-four-hour shifts that unions were fighting.
How Black Americans Fought for Literacy
From the moment US Army troops arrived in the South, newly freed people sought ways to gain education—particularly to learn to read and write.
What Makes Vaccine Mandates Legal?
Historically, the Supreme Court has held that forgoing vaccines is a threat to public health and therefore beyond the bounds of liberty.
The Ugly History of Chicago’s “Ugly Law”
In the nineteenth century, laws in many parts of the country prohibited "undeserving" disabled people from appearing in public.
Woodrow Wilson and American Empire
After World War I, it looked like President Wilson's ideas about preserving democracy would mean decolonization. But the age of empires wasn't quite over.
Will Chocolate Survive Climate Change? Actually, Maybe
The forecast has been bad for domesticated cacao. But some environments in Peru might hold the key to the future of the world's sweet tooth.
Strawberries and British Identity Forever
Even though they occupied much of South Asia, British civil servants and their wives wanted a taste of home. Strawberries, for instance.
The Serpents of Liberty
From the colonial period to the end of the US Civil War, the rattlesnake sssssssymbolized everything from evil to unity and power.
How Computer Science Became a Boys’ Club
Women were the first computer programmers. How, then, did programming become the domain of bearded nerds and manly individualists?