Close Calls: When the Cold War Almost Went Nuclear
Most of the nuclear near-misses during the Cold War were kept under wraps, and they still make for unnerving reading in the twenty-first century.
Industrial Policy via Women’s Magazines
In the early 1900s, women’s magazines helped both women and men grapple with China’s fast-changing world of technology and industrial activity.
Home Foundations Are Crumbling. This Mineral Is to Blame.
Pyrrhotite causes cracks in concrete. But research on how widespread the issue might be has only scratched the surface.
Best of Suggested Readings 2024
Well-researched stories about Turkish cats, salmon hats, and more from publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Venice, the Walkable Sixteenth-Century City
In early modern Venice, walking was the most convenient mode of transportation for almost everyone. It was also a symbol of strength and nobility for elites.
A Private Coup: Guatemala, 1954
A 1954 coup, backed by the CIA and private citizen William Pawley, installed an authoritarian regime and touched off four decades of civil war in Guatemala.
Insects in the Mail
The efficiency of the postal system and generosity of local experts played important roles in the advancement of entomology in eighteenth-century France.
Editors’ Picks of 2024
Magical furniture, toxic gardens, and Scottish hideaways: we’ve gathered our favorite JSTOR Daily stories published this year.
Science in Defiance of the Tsar: The Women of the 1860s
Sofia Kovalevskaia became the first woman in Europe to obtain her doctorate in mathematics—but only after leaving Russia for Germany.