Mohammad Mosaddeq, 1951

US–Iran Relations: 1953

What really happened in Iran back in the day, and what did the United States have to do with it?
Tyler S. Sprague

Tyler S. Sprague on the Intersection of Structure and Design

An interview with Tyler S. Sprague, a historian of the built environment whose work depends on multidisciplinarity and a deep knowledge of structure and materials.
Wild Horses at Play by George Catlin, between 1834 and 1837

The Rise and Fall of the Equestrian Cultures of the Plains

The introduction of the horse to North America by the Spanish transformed the lives of the Indigenous peoples of the Plains in decidedly mixed ways.
A still from the film Sumpah Pontianak, 1958.

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 Singing Society, 22nd Infantry, Ft. Keogh, May 13, 1894

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.
An illustration from The System of Saturn by Christiaan Huygens

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.
stone wheel in a cave

How Was the Wheel Invented?

Computer simulations reveal the unlikely birth of a world-changing technology nearly 6,000 years ago.
Men ride their bikes, down a cobblestone road in Copenhagen, Denmark in July 3, 1946.

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?
Men in striped pants removing dirt or gravel from a ditch, 1911, Panama Canal Zone

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.
An aerial view of an open pit phosphate mine

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.