A Short History of Hairdryers
The beauty parlor became a place of sociability for women in the twentieth century, partly aided by modern technology of hair drying.
Understanding Capitalism Through Cotton
Looking at the development of cotton as a global commodity, explains historian Sven Beckert, helps us understand how capitalism emerged.
A Boatload of Knowledge for New Harmony
Leaders of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences voyaged down the Ohio River in 1825–1826, taking academic education on a journey in search of utopia.
The Cross-Dressing Superstar of the Belle Époque
Mathilde de Morny's commitment to a masculine aesthetic and a non-traditional lifestyle in nineteenth-century France challenged the boundaries of gender identity.
Could You Stand on the Surface of Jupiter? Exploring the Enigmatic Outer Planets
The outer planets’ clouds hide the weirdness within.
Consuming Hawai‘i’s Golden People
With statehood in 1959 came “Aloha Spirit” tourism, turning Hawai‘i’s ethnic diversity into a commodity that benefited both business and US foreign policy.
Race, Prison, and the Thirteenth Amendment
Critiques of the Thirteenth Amendment have roots in a long history of activists who understood the imprisonment of Black people as a type of slavery.
Poison and Magic in Caribbean Uprisings
Witchcraft and poisoning were closely connected for both West Africans and the Europeans who enslaved them in the eighteenth-century Caribbean.
How the Black Press Helped Integrate Baseball
In the 1930s and ’40s, Black newspapers like the Pittsburgh Courier used their platform to help break the sport’s color line.