A Feminist Reading of The Long Winter
In The Long Winter, often praised as Laura Ingalls Wilder’s greatest novel, the villain may be not the snow, but oppressive gender roles.
Suggested Readings: Holiday Happiness, Toasting Your Health, and Media Monopolies
Well-researched stories from around the web that bridge the gap between news and scholarship. Brought to you each Tuesday from the editors of JSTOR Daily.
Player Pianos and the Commodification of Music
Half of all American homes had a piano or player piano a century ago, but very few do now. Whatever happened to the parlor piano?
How Highlanders Came to Wear Kilts
Kilts are traditional garb from Scotland, right? Well, that's not quite the whole story.
How Victorians’ Fear of Starvation Created Our Christmas Lore
One scholar sees more in the Christmas food of authors like Charles Dickens—English national identity and class.
What Amateur Cookbooks Reveal About History
Remember those spiral-bound cookbooks from your church group or your mom’s favorite charity? Those amateur recipe collections are history books, too.
The Science of Traffic
Traffic congestion has been a problem in the United States ever since the 1930s, and since that time, scientists have been studying on the problem.
China Denounces Coal, Chile Goes Solar, and Guinea Tackles Sleeping Sickness
Chile turned the Atacama Desert into a giant solar farm, China denounced coal power, and Guinea has been plagued by sleeping sickness.
Shakespeare, Rembrandt, and the Real “Twelfth Night”
"Twelfth Night" was more than a Shakespeare play; for a very long time it was an extremely popular European winter feast.
Democracy, Aristocracy, and the American Hunter
In our own new Gilded Age, it’s worth asking what the big game hunters have in common with people who hunt to put some extra meat on the table.