How Judi Bari Tried to Unite Loggers and Environmentalists
The radical environmentalist had a background in labor organizing and wanted to end the misogyny of the movement and the logging industry alike.
How Spirit Photography Made Heaven Literal
Are the departed watching over us, and if so, what are they wearing? Victorian spiritualists believed that ghosts could be captured on film.
The Black Mathematician Who Resisted Nuclear War
J. Ernest Wilkins Jr. worked on the Manhattan Project and signed a petition that the bomb not be used before Japan was offered terms of surrender.
Is It Really Carnival if You’re Not Drunk?
Carnival is known for overturning the rules of society for a short time. But strangely, many scholars don't discuss what a big role alcohol plays in it.
AITA for Being Obsessed with Ethics in Pop Culture?
Reddit's popular AITA forum lets readers post and weigh in on everyday ethical questions. But it isn't the first public venue for those discussions.
Margaret S. Collins, Pioneering Black Entomologist
She was the first African American woman to earn a PhD in entomology as well as an activist for freedom in the Civil Rights Movement.
Black Mexico and the War of Independence
The president of Mexico who finally issued the decree ending slavery was of African descent himself.
Wounded Knee and the Myth of the Vanished Indian
The story of the 1890 massacre was often about the end of Native American resistance to US expansion. But that’s not how everyone told it.
How 1920s Catholic Students Fought the Ku Klux Klan
There are few traces today of college students' resistance to anti-Catholic threats, but the ones that remain are powerful.
Why Cupid Rules Valentine’s Day
The rascally cherub has been part of Valentine's Day lore since Chaucer’s time.