The Fatal Current: Electrocution as Progress?
The electric chair was promoted as civilized and at the same time imbued with the technological sublime, the mystery of electrical power harnessed by humans.
What Can Native American People in Prison Teach Us About Community and Art?
An exploration of creativity, ingenuity, and resilience using the American Prison Newspapers collection and JSTOR. The second curriculum guide in this series.
The Devonshire Manuscript
The sixteenth-century handwritten collection of poetry and commentary offers a glimpse of intellectual life at the court of King Henry VIII.
How the Jewish Labor Bund Changed After World War II
For those thousands involved with the Bund, the group played an important role in a era marked by trauma, displacement, and resettlement.
Why Did They Leave the Pueblos?
The Ancestral Puebloans were driven from their homes in the American Southwest by a combination of factors rather than a single cause.
Topsy-Turvy: Children in Adult Roles
The number of children acting like adults on stage reflects how conflicted nineteenth-century Anglo-Americans were about the definition of childhood.
Wreckonomics: “Finders Keepers” in Maritime Law
Finding valuable treasure underwater is more complicated than “finders keepers, losers weepers.” Competing maritime laws govern the recovered riches.
The Manifesto of the 343
In a dramatic act of civil disobedience, more than three hundred French women publicly confessed to having had an illegal abortion.
The Pan-American Highway and the Darién Gap
The Pan-American Highway began a century ago with a vision of unfettered motor-vehicle access between Alaska and Tierra del Fuego. What happened to the dream?
Children’s Fairy Tales and Feminine Beauty
Fairy tales, many of which associate women’s beauty with goodness, act as scripts that pass along specific messages about women’s bodies and attractiveness.