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Various foods, such as milk, peanuts, potatoes, bread, and bananas, on a beige background.

A Brief History of the Calorie

The measure of thermal energy expended by exercise was adapted from the study of explosives and engines.
by Livia Gershon, Nick Cullather via JSTOR Daily on February 6, 2020
Hooded person shining a laser pointer at an airplane in the dark

A Blinding History of the Laser Pointer

They can wreck your eyes, and they can land you 14 years in jail for shining one at a police chopper. But where did they come from?
by Ian Lecklitner via MEL on August 20, 2019
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
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez speaks to an audience in front of a Green New Deal sign.
partner

The Federal Government Subsidized the Carbon Economy. Now it Should Subsidize a Greener One.

Why the Green New Deal fits right in with America’s energy economy.
by Ryan Driskell Tate via Made By History on April 26, 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
Poster reading "Victory! Congress Passes Daylight Saving Bill," and "Get Your Hoe Ready!," depicting Uncle Sam and clock-related imagery.

100 Years Later, the Madness of Daylight Saving Time Endures

Unfortunately, there’s not an unlimited amount of daylight that we can squeeze out of our clocks.
by Michael Downing via The Conversation on March 9, 2018

The Jet Engine Is a Futuristic Technology Stuck in the Past

Rockets and turbofans have promised to realize dreams of transportation progress—for decades.
by Christopher Schaberg via The Atlantic on February 11, 2018

Oil Barrels Aren't Real Anymore

Once a cask that held crude, the oil barrel is now mostly an economic concept.
by Brian Jacobson via The Atlantic on September 8, 2017
Coal power plant.
partner

It’s Time to Ditch Coal, Not Clean It

In the 19th century, Americans abandoned one source of dirty energy. Can they do it again?
by Raymond Malewitz via Made By History on July 26, 2017

Letter From a Drowned Canyon

The story of water in the West, climate change, and the birth of modern environmentalism lies at the bottom of Lake Powell.
by Rebecca Solnit via The California Sunday Magazine on March 30, 2017
Armed miners at the military headquarters of the United Mine Workers, in Trinidad, Colorado, the month of the Ludlow massacre.

There Was Blood

The Ludlow massacre revisited.
by Caleb Crain via The New Yorker on January 12, 2009
Photograph of cars bumper to bumper on a highway, USA (year unknown, likely during 1970s energy crisis)

How Congress Planned To Solve The 1970s Energy Crisis

Representative Mo Udall's ambitious strategy to wean the United States off fossil fuels by the year 2000.
by Morris K. Udall via The New Republic on June 16, 1973

When Big Oil Was "The Great Vampire Squid" Wrapped Around America

Robert Engler's award-winning 1955 investigation into the oil industry.
by Robert Engler via The New Republic on August 29, 1955
Jimmy Carter in the 1970s visiting a town in Brazil that commemorates Confederate expats.

Jimmy Carter, 1924-2024

As an individual, Jimmy Carter stood as a rebuke to our venal and heartless political class. As a politician, his private virtues proved to be public vices.
by Tim Barker via Origins of Our Time on January 1, 2025
Man surrounded by water fountain, refrigerator, and other modern appliances.

We Live Like Royalty and Don’t Know It

Introducing “How the System Works,” a series on the hidden mechanisms that support modern life.
by Charles C. Mann via The New Atlantis on December 9, 2024
The famous photo of the eyes from The Great Gatsby.

How “The Great Gatsby” Changed the Landscape of New York City

On Robert Moses, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the culture of environmental waste.
by John Marsh via Monthly Review on November 13, 2024
Screenshot of soldiers and an explosion.

Noam Chomsky on How America Sanitizes the Horror of Its Wars

On the origins of America's hegemonic foreign policy.
by Noam Chomsky via Literary Hub on October 16, 2024
1950s office worker holding a handkerchief to his brow.

How Air Conditioning Took Over the American Office

Before AC, office workers relied on building design to adapt to high temperatures. The promise of boosted productivity created a different kind of workplace.
by David Dudley via CityLab on September 3, 2024
A crystal ball reflecting a landscape.

50 Years Later: Remembering How the Future Looked in 1974

A half-century ago, "Saturday Review" asked some of the era's visionaries for their predictions of what 2024 would look like. Here are their hits and misses.
by David Cassel via The New Stack on August 24, 2024
Reddy Kilowatt mascott emerging from an outlet.

The Energy Mascot that Electrified America

An animation historian on Reddy Kilowatt, the cartoon charged with electrifying everything in the early 20th century.
by Mike Munsell, Kirsten Moana Thompson via Heatmap on August 5, 2024
A photograph of Louisa May Alcott.

Nonfiction That Rivals Little Women: The Forgotten Essays of Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott is best known for Little Women, but she earned her first taste of celebrity as an essayist.
by Liz Rosenberg via Literary Hub on October 24, 2023
Post card depicting coal miners in PA

When Did Americans Start Using Fossil Fuel?

The nineteenth-century establishment of mid-Atlantic coal mines and canals gave America its first taste of abundant fossil fuel energy.
by Livia Gershon, Christopher F. Jones via JSTOR Daily on October 11, 2023
Amy Brady next to cover of "Ice" on ice background

A Profoundly Impactful Substance

"Ice: From Mixed Drinks to Skating Rinks – A Cool History of a Hot Commodity" reveals the history of frozen water and its impact on American life and culture.
by Ian Macallen, Amy Brady via Chicago Review of Books on June 6, 2023
Visualization showing the largest cities in the US, from the Statistical Atlas of the Eleventh Census, 1790-1890

Growing New England's Cities

What can a visualization of population growth in cities and towns in the Northeast tell us about different moments in the region's economic geography?
by Garrett Dash Nelson via Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center on March 17, 2023
Image from cover of "Reconsidering Reparations"

Reconsidering Reparations

Reparations must be rooted in a political context that will safeguard rather than erode the gains they make towards justice.
by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò via LPE Project on February 21, 2023
Watts, CA - December 17: A resident is silhouetted walking through Nickerson Gardens, the largest public housing development west of the Mississippi River in Watts at sunset Friday, Dec. 17, 2021. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

How Historic Redlining Led to Extreme Heat in the Watts Community

The lack of investment in neighborhoods has resulted in communities of color living in areas far hotter than those of their white neighbors.
by Bharat Venkat via Los Angeles Times on July 27, 2022
A line of cars waiting their turn at a filling station in Portland, Oregon, 1973.

The Price of Oil

The history of control and decontrol in the oil market.
by Gregory Brew via Phenomenal World on May 25, 2022
An image of a sardine can with a large group of people shoved inside.

The People Who Hate People

Of all the objections NIMBYs raise to new housing and infrastructure, perhaps the most risible is that their community is already too crowded.
by Jerusalem Demsas via The Atlantic on May 24, 2022
Oil rigs just south of town extract crude for Chevron at sunrise in Taft, California, on July 22, 2008.

How Private Oil Companies Took Over U.S. Energy Security

And why it’s time to take it back.
by Gregory Brew via Foreign Policy on May 16, 2022
A black an white photo of school children exiting a bus in the dark

The US Tried Permanent Daylight Saving Time in the '70s. People Hated It.

The number one complaint: Children had to go to school in the dark.
by Andrew Beaujon via Washingtonian on March 15, 2022
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