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Roof spotter looking at New York City skyline
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Route Cause

On the 1870s skirmish between John D. Rockefeller and the upstart competitors who built the country’s first long-distance oil pipeline.
via BackStory on June 5, 2015
Illustrations of a skeleton and an angel in a book.

This 19th-Century ‘Toy Book’ Used Science to Prove That Ghosts Were Simply an Illusion

“Spectropia” demystified the techniques used by mediums who claimed they could speak to the dead, revealing the “absurd follies of Spiritualism.”
by Vanessa Armstrong via Smithsonian on October 29, 2024
A 1923 General Electric advertisement of a women standing over a light switch.

Using Women’s Suffrage to Sell Soup and Cereal

In the 1920s, advertisers tried to convince women to exercise their political power not only at the ballot box but also in the store.
by Einav Rabinovitch-Fox via The Saturday Evening Post on October 29, 2024
The Doctors' House in Glendale.

Pieces of the Past at the Doctors House: Glendale, California

How one house can contain larger stories of American migration and growth, reckonings with exclusion, and the advent of new technologies.
by Katherine Hobbs via Public Books on March 21, 2024
An electrified barbed-wire fence around Fort Bliss in El Paso, Tex., near the Mexican border, in 1915 or 1916.

The Long, Ugly History of Barbed Wire at the U.S.-Mexico Border

The first barbed wire border fences were proposed to keep out Chinese migrants. They’ve been debated for over a century.
by David Dorado Romo via Retropolis on December 9, 2023
A musician wearing a Moog hat and playing a Moog synthesizer in a recording studio

The Sounds of Science

The Moog synthesizer was one of the most influential inventions in 20th-century sound. With the recent sale of the Asheville-based company, a new era begins.
by Reanna Cruz via The Bitter Southerner on October 31, 2023
A building with Amazon's logo
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How Public Opinion May Decide the FTC Amazon Antitrust Suit

In the 1920s, electricity monopolies survived an antitrust investigation because they had won over the public.
by Daniel Robert via Made By History on October 24, 2023

The Ultimate Road Trip

On the Road with Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and John Burroughs.
by H. W. Brands via The Washington Free Beacon on August 27, 2023
A photograph of a bouquet flowers with the center of the image intentionally cut out.

Nothing to See Here

For centuries the study of optics and the use of invisibility in science fiction have developed side by side, each inspiring the other.
by James Gleick via New York Review of Books on July 27, 2023
Workers pushing Coca-Cola refrigerators.

Coca-Cola's Biggest Challenge in Greening its Operations is Its Own Global Marketing Strategy

Coca-Cola has made ambitious climate and sustainability pledges, but marketing its products worldwide will always be a top priority.
by Bart Elmore via The Conversation on May 23, 2023
A police officer stands beside a crashed automobile, 1905. (Photo by Robert Alexander / Getty Images)

The Reckless History of the Automobile

In "The Car," Bryan Appleyard sets out to celebrate the freedom these vehicles granted. But what if they were a dangerous technology from the start?
by Paris Marx via The Nation on March 13, 2023
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
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The Big Business Campaign That Has Shaped 40 Years of GOP Rhetoric

The philosophy that drives the GOP's attacks on government and how it has fueled some of our biggest problems.
by Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway via Made By History on March 9, 2023
Picture of the factories that were placed on the St. Lawrence River.

How US Corporations Poisoned This Indigenous Community

These invisible chemicals changed the Mohawk way of life. They’re probably already in you, too.
by Liz Scheltens via Vox on August 16, 2022
Black and white photo of Dennis Kucinich speaking, with a Cleveland flag next to him.

When the Mob Tried to Whack Dennis Kucinich

31-year-old Cleveland mayor Dennis Kucinich took a stand against the sale of his city’s publicly owned electric utility. And he almost paid for it with his life.
by Timothy M. Gill via Jacobin on June 6, 2022
Black and white photo of the 1940 Chevrolet half-ton.

The Rugged History of the Pickup Truck

At first, it was all about hauling things we needed. Then the vehicle itself became the thing we wanted.
by Jeff MacGregor via Smithsonian on August 17, 2021
British soldiers with a four-horn sound locator. This photograph documents a military drill during the interwar period.

Powers of Hearing: The Military Science of Sound Location

During WWI the act of hearing was recast as a tactical activity — one that could determine human and even national survival.
by Gascia Ouzounian via The MIT Press Reader on July 26, 2021
Women heating a kettle on a gas stove

How the Fossil Fuel Industry Convinced Americans to Love Gas Stoves

And why they’re scared we might break up with their favorite appliance.
by Rebecca Leber via Mother Jones on June 17, 2021
Black and white photo of a family sitting around the television together

A Brief History of Consumer Culture

Over the 20th century, capitalism preserved its momentum by molding the ordinary person into a consumer with an unquenchable thirst for more stuff.
by Kerryn Higgs via The MIT Press Reader on January 11, 2021
Maggie and Kate Fox

Why Did Everyone in the 19th Century Think They Could Talk to the Dead?

Kevin Dann on the spiritualists of New York City and beyond.
by Kevin Dann via Literary Hub on January 5, 2021
Superman comic illustration

Why Superheroes Are the Shape of Tech Things to Come

Superman et al were invented amid feverish eugenic speculation: what does the superhero craze say about our own times?
by Iwan Rhys Morus via Aeon on March 5, 2020
A 1947 advertisement for the air conditioner featuring two women looking bemusedly at a new window unit.

The Unexpected History of the Air Conditioner

The invention was once received with chilly skepticism but has become a fixture of American life.
by Haleema Shah via Smithsonian on June 24, 2019

Original Catfluencer: How a Victorian Artist’s Feline Fixation Gave Us the Internet Cat

A story of how Louis Wain single handedly made cats adored by Victorian society through to modern day.
by Lisa Hix via Collectors Weekly on May 7, 2019
Artistic photo of factory pollution

Endless Combustion

Three new books examine how the rise of coal, oil, and gas have permanently remade our world.
by Bill McKibben via The Nation on February 6, 2019
A house with Christmas lights, and wildfires advancing towards it.

Southern California’s Uncanny, Inevitable Yuletide Fires

The current level of fire danger is so high that the U.S. Forest Service has described them using the color purple, to signify “extreme.”
by Mike Davis via The New Yorker on December 11, 2017
original

America @ Worship

How social media is – and isn't – changing American religion.
by Sara Georgini on October 29, 2017
Organic chemistry graphic of burning tree

How the Benzene Tree Polluted the World

The organic compounds that enabled industrialization are having unintended consequences for the planet’s life.
by Rebecca Altman via The Atlantic on October 4, 2017

Ronald Reagan, the First Reality TV Star President

Ronald Reagan is at the heart of the modern American politics of advertising, public relations, and a television in every home.
by Matthew Wills, Tim Raphael via JSTOR Daily on June 5, 2017

Victorian Era Drones: How Model Trains Transformed from Cutting-Edge to Quaint

Nostalgia and technological innovation paved the way for the rise of model-train giant Lionel.
by Ben Marks via Collectors Weekly on February 1, 2017
Santa in a rocket sleigh.

A Wonderful Life

How postwar Christmas embraced spaceships, nukes, and cellophane.
by Sarah Archer, Lisa Hix via Collectors Weekly on December 15, 2016
Binary information.

A Brief History of Character Codes

Character codes have been evolving through multiple systems over multiple centuries, this is the story.
by Steven J. Searle via TRON Web on August 6, 2004

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