History

The Civil War

Photo Interactive: The Civil War, Now in Living Color

How one author adds actual blues and grays to historic photographs

February 22, 2013

Eleanor Roosevelt and the Soviet Sniper

Pavlichenko was a Soviet sniper credited with 309 kills—and an advocate for women’s rights. On a U.S. tour in 1942, she found a friend in the first lady

February 21, 2013

Robot Vanna, Trashy Presidents and Steak as Health Food: Samsung Sells Tomorrow

Advertisers love to use futurism as a way to position their products as forward-thinking

February 20, 2013

Automating Hard or Hardly Automating? George Jetson and the Manual Labor of Tomorrow

And you think you’re having a bad work week, just think about the robots

February 19, 2013

The History of the Flapper, Part 3: The Rectangular Silhouette

Finally, women could breathe deeply when the waist-nipping corset went out of style

February 19, 2013

Into the Cave of Chile’s Witches

Did members of a powerful society of warlocks actually murder their enemies and kidnap children?

February 19, 2013

Libra: The 21st Century (Libertarian) Space Colony

The government can’t get their hands on you when you’re floating above Earth

February 15, 2013

The Last Massive Exploding Meteor Hit Earth in 1908, Leveling 800 Square Miles of Forest

In 1908, a meteor exploding in mid-air released the energy equivalent to “185 Hiroshima bombs”

February 15, 2013

Jane Jetson and the Origins of the “Women Are Bad Drivers” Joke

What happens when a comedy staple of mid-century sitcoms reappears as a late-century Saturday morning tradition?

February 14, 2013

The Origins of Wearing Your Heart on Your Sleeve

Valentine’s Day can be an occasion for quirky expressions of love

February 14, 2013

Document Deep Dive

Document Deep Dive: The Most Influential Art Show You’ve Never Heard Of

Van Gogh, Cezanne and Degas lined the walls of the famed Armory Show 100 years ago, but it was Marcel Duchamp who stole the thunder

February 14, 2013

Reckless Breeding of the Unfit: Earnest Hooton, Eugenics and the Human Body of the Year 2000

A future America, populated by horse-faced, spindly giants with big feet

February 12, 2013

The Masked Merriment of Mardi Gras

For centuries, the day’s revelry has featured the liberated feeling of hiding in plain view

February 12, 2013

Document Deep Dive

Harry Truman’s Adorable Love “List” to His Wife, Bess

As a celebration of 38 years of marriage, the former president shared his memories, both fond and bittersweet, from each anniversary

February 12, 2013

Viva Las Venus: The Jetsons and Wholesome Hedonism

What happens in the year 2063 stays in the year 2063

February 8, 2013

The Battle Over Richard III’s Bones…And His Reputation

Rival towns are vying for the king’s remains and his legacy now that his skeleton has been found 500 years after his death

February 8, 2013

The History of the Flapper, Part 2: Makeup Makes a Bold Entrance

It’s the birth of the modern cosmetics business as young women look for beauty enhancers in a tube or jar

February 7, 2013

The History of the Flapper, Part 1: A Call for Freedom

The young, fashionable women of the 1920s define the dress and style of their peers in their own words

February 5, 2013

Should the Constitution Be Scrapped?

In a new book, Louis Michael Seidman claims that arguing about the constitutionality of laws and reforms is the cause of our harsh political discourse

February 5, 2013

The Uncertain Promise of Freedom’s Light: Black Soldiers in The Civil War

Sometimes treated as curiosities at the time, black men and women fighting for the Union and organizing for change altered the course of history

February 1, 2013