Chains of Credit: The Entrepreneurial Advantage of Slavery
As the financial history of Maryland shows, slavery represented extraordinarily liquid wealth and outsized political power.
The Rise of Police Torture in New Orleans
Even as crime rates dropped in the 1930s, the police of New Orleans stepped up their use of torture to obtain confessions from Black Americans accused of crimes.
The Fight for Native American Voting Rights
Despite the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act in 1924, Native American activists have had to repeatedly take their fight for voting rights to Congress.
Boven Digoel, the Prison Camp in the “Siberia of Indonesia”
The number of ethnic Chinese incarcerated in Boven Digoel in the 1920s was low, but the New Guinea colonial prison nonetheless shaped Sino-Malay literature.
A Brief History of the Muses
Scholar Alison Habens tells us more about the Greek goddesses who provided divine inspiration for ancient poets.
A History of Diwali
Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, is observed across the length and breadth of India as well as among the large Indian diaspora around the world.
Halloween Stories
Why are Victorians the default haunted house, what do ghosts have to do with the imagination, and why do we like to be scared?
Jews vs. the “Judeo-Christian Tradition”
Since the 1930s, the idea of a “Judeo-Christian tradition” has been used in American politics, but some Jews have always taken issue with the entire concept.
Viruses Through the Looking-Glass
The electron microscope brought about a paradigm shift in virology in the middle of the twentieth century.
Can You Photograph a Ghost?
William Hope claimed to be able to document the visitations of ghosts. The controversial images he produced add to our understanding of the history of photography.