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Illustration of John von Neumann surrounded by mathematical formulas, by Valentin Pavageau

John von Neumann Thought He Had the Answers

The father of game theory helped develop the atom bomb—and thought he could calculate when to use it.
by Samanth Subramanian via The New Republic on March 8, 2022
Magazine illustration depicting fantastical inventions for travel on water, land, and air, titled March of Intellect, by William Heath, c. 1828.

A Utopia of Useful Things

On the nineteenth-century artists and thinkers who pictured a future of abundance powered by steam.
by Michael Rawson via Lapham’s Quarterly on December 24, 2021
Book cover of Pushing Cool, featuring a photo of a cigarette ad on the side of a building.

Selling Menthol: On Keith Wailoo’s “Pushing Cool”

A history of the menthol cigarette and its effects on Black people.
by Vesper North via Los Angeles Review of Books on October 31, 2021
Lucille Ball wrapping a baby doll in a diaper on "I Love Lucy" (left) and drawing of tie-waist skirt design (right)

How a Genius Fashion Invention Freed Midcentury Women Like Lucille Ball to Be Pregnant in Public

The inventor thought her pregnant sister looked like “a beach ball in an unmade bed.”
by Michelle Millar Fisher, Amber Winick via Slate on October 12, 2021
Political cartoon of the U.S Capitol

The Liberals Who Weakened Trust in Government

How public interest groups inadvertently aided the right’s ascendency.
by Kim Phillips-Fein via The New Republic on August 2, 2021
Collage-style design of Milton Friedman and his work

The End of Friedmanomics

The famed economist’s theories were embraced by Beltway power brokers in both parties. Finally, a Democratic president is turning the page on a legacy of ruin.
by Zachary D. Carter via The New Republic on June 17, 2021
Packages of beef cuts
partner

What Scaremongering About Inflation Gets Wrong

Inflation isn't inexorably a bad thing. In fact, it used to be considered good.
by Rebecca L. Spang via Made By History on May 25, 2021
The Moshassuck River running under a bridge with graffiti.

Difficult Topographies

There are whole hidden worlds pressing into this one.
by Sam Coren via Contingent on May 5, 2021
Collage with a woman pointing to a midcentury modern chair

Instagram’s Favorite Furniture Style Has an Uncomfortable History

How we sit isn’t the only thing midcentury modernism sought to control.
by Rebecca Onion, Kristina Wilson via Slate on April 30, 2021
A worker removes the Sackler name from a building at Tufts University in 2019.

The Problem of Pain

It’s easier to blame individuals for the opioid crisis than to attempt to diagnose and cure the ills of a society.
by Sophie Pinkham via Dissent on April 5, 2021
Two people playing mahjong in black-and-white photo

White Women and the Mahjong Craze

Travelers brought the Chinese game to American shores in the early 1920s. Why was it such a hit?
by Annelise Heinz, Livia Gershon via JSTOR Daily on February 2, 2021
The Dead Kennedys against a graffiti wall.

Punk Versus Reagan

A new book on American punk paints the movement as the last gasp of left-wing cultural resistance in the 1980s.
by Alexander Billet via Jacobin on November 9, 2020
Jimmy Carter speaking.

What Happens When a President Really Listens?

Jonathan Alter on Jimmy Carter ditching politics for truth.
by Jonathan Alter via Literary Hub on September 30, 2020
Drawing of people picking cotton at a plantation

A Few Random Thoughts on Capitalism and Slavery

Historian James Oakes offers a critique of the New History of Capitalism.
by James Oakes via The Economic Historian on September 28, 2020

Where Were You in ‘73?

In the turbulent 1970s, the balm of pop cultural nostalgia set the tone for today's political reaction.
by Jason Tebbe via Tropics of Meta on July 16, 2020
Wanto Co. grocery store with a sign that reads "I Am An American"

Discovering Judith Shklar’s Skeptical Liberalism of Fear

Judith Shklar fled Nazis and Stalinism before discovering in African-American history the dilemma of modern liberalism.
by Samantha Ashenden, Andreas Hess via Aeon on March 16, 2020
Cups of coffee on a tray photographed from above to look like pills on a foil sheet.

Capitalism’s Favorite Drug

The dark history of how coffee took over the world.
by Michael Pollan via The Atlantic on March 15, 2020
Workers on a pineapple plantation.

In Hawaiʻi, Plantation Tourism Tastes Like Pineapple

The Dole pineapple plantation has a destructive history of transforming the Hawaiian Islands—something that continues today in the tourism industry.
by Mallory Huard via Edge Effects on November 12, 2019
Political cartoon depicting stock exchange fraud.

Has Capitalism Become Our Religion?

On the myths and rituals of the market, the lost radicalism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the rise of neoliberalism.
by Eugene McCarraher, Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins via The Nation on October 4, 2019
original

How America Thought About Refugees 70 Years Ago

And other gleanings from the 1949 run of the Saturday Evening Post.
by Benjamin Breen on February 26, 2019
Border patrol guarding a group of men sitting on the ground.
partner

A Wall Can’t Solve America’s Addiction to Undocumented Immigration

For more than 70 years, undocumented immigrants have shaped the American economy.
by Julia G. Young via Made By History on January 9, 2019

Shaman's Revenge?

The birth, death and afterlife of our romance with tobacco.
by Mike Jay via mikejay.net on January 1, 2019
A woman dressed in steampunk fashion.

Steampunk for Historians

It's about time.
by Scott P. Marler via Perspectives on History on December 3, 2018

The Lost World of the Middlebrow Tastemaker

Journalist Elizabeth Gordon had unsparing opinions about the inadequacy of both mainstream and elite notions of design.
by Anthony Paletta via The American Conservative on June 8, 2018

Susan Fenimore Cooper, Forgotten Naturalist

Susan Fenimore Cooper is now being recognized as one of the nation's first environmentalists.
by Rochelle Johnson, Matthew Wills via JSTOR Daily on May 31, 2018

It Didn’t Start with Facebook: Surveillance and the Commercial Media

The era of audience exploitation began in earnest thanks in large part to the experiments of Dr. Frank Stanton in the 1930s.
by Michael J. Socolow via We're History on May 1, 2018
Multiple pieces of faces from different faces that come together to form one face

The 200-Year Legal Struggle That Led to Citizens United

How businesses campaigned to win constitutional rights and expand their political reach.
by Kim Phillips-Fein via The New Republic on March 29, 2018

When America Was a Developing Country

The nostalgia of some conservatives hearkens back to a different—and irretrievable—economic time.
by Addison Del Mastro via The American Conservative on December 13, 2017

The Underclass Origins of the Little Black Dress

The upper classes once imposed the fashion staple on their servants—then they stole it back from them.
by Shelley Puhak via The Atlantic on October 13, 2017
Cartoon silhouettes of elongated business people in suits

Business as Usual: The Long History of Corporate Personhood

The mass defection of CEOs of some of the nation’s most powerful corporations from President Trump’s now-defunct Manufacturing Jobs Initiative.
by Lawrence B. Glickman via Boston Review on August 23, 2017
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