A riveter at work, circa 1940.

Could “Rosie the Riveter” Be Chinese American?

Despite having their citizenship withheld before the war, Chinese American women in the Bay Area made significant contributions to the wartime labor force.
Le Petit Ramoneur (The Little Chimney Sweep) by Jules Bastien-Lepage, 1883

Chimney Sweeps and the Turn Against Child Labor

The slowly expanding protections of “climbing boys” reveal the changing attitudes to child labor in Ireland during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Beata Beatrix by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, ca 1864-70.

Becoming Beatrice

Dante adored her so much that he cast her as his guide in the Divine Comedy. But who was Beatrice Portinari?
People work to clear the rubble near the village of Nuan Seetaga following the 8.3 magnitude strong earthquake which struck on Tuesday, on October 3, 2009 in Pago Pago, American Samoa

A Village Responds to Disaster

When a tsunami struck American Samoa in 2009, the key to a swift response was Indigenous institutions that drew on local knowledge and community training.
Mjøstårnet skyscraper, Norway

Sustainable Building Effort Reaches New Heights with Wooden Skyscrapers

Wood engineered for strength and safety offers architects an alternative to carbon-intensive steel and concrete.
The crescent and star, a symbol of Islam

The Rewards and Risks of Islamic Finance

The principles of Islamic finance date to the seventh century. What do they have to offer to the contemporary global financial system?
The covers of three Chinese Science Fiction novels

What’s so Chinese About Science Fiction from China?

Commentators have latched onto science fiction to explain all manner of social phenomena in China, from unemployment and the economy to air pollution.
Slaves waiting for sale, Richmond, VA, 1861

Chains of Credit: The Entrepreneurial Advantage of Slavery

As the financial history of Maryland shows, slavery represented extraordinarily liquid wealth and outsized political power.
Antique wood truncheon club from the 1920s

The Rise of Police Torture in New Orleans

Even as crime rates dropped in the 1930s, the police of New Orleans stepped up their use of torture to obtain confessions from Black Americans accused of crimes.
Wilbert Hunt, 97, the oldest member of the Pueblo of Acoma, casts his ballot at the Acoma Tribal Center in Acoma, New Mexico, 2004

The Fight for Native American Voting Rights

Despite the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act in 1924, Native American activists have had to repeatedly take their fight for voting rights to Congress.