Taking Slavery West in the 1850s
Before the Civil War, pro-slavery forces in the South—particularly the future president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis—tried to extend their power westward.
Webster’s Dictionary 1828: Annotated
Noah Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language declared Americans free from the tyranny of British institutions and their vocabularies.
Charles Darwin and His Correspondents: A Lifetime of Letters
An epistolary network was critical for Darwin’s work, allowing him to obtain new information while sparking fresh ideas in his correspondents’ minds.
A People’s Bank at the Post Office
The Postal Savings System offered depositors a US government-backed guarantee of security, but it was undone by for-profit private banks.
London Planetrees, Moon Time, and Dunning-Kruger
The best stories from Slate, Sapiens, and other research-backed publications around the web.
Culinary Fusion in the Ancient World
People from eastern Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, South Asia, and Southeast Asia have been sharing food plants across the Indian Ocean for millennia.
Postcards Revolutionized Pornography
In the late nineteenth century, the postcard became the ideal medium for expanding the audience for pornography, much to the concern of social elites.
Who Can Just Stop Oil?
Groups such as Just Stop Oil are calling for change, but their aims need to be considered with respect to more than a reductionist slogan.
The Industrial Revolution and the Rise of Policing
The increased use of machines and the division of labor allowed for the production of standardized products. It also made it easier to fence stolen goods.
Colorful Lights to Cure What Ails You
Between 1920 and the 1960s, tens of thousands of people received treatment with a Spectro-Chrome to address various ailments.