Freedmen's School

Bringing Universal Education to the South

The year 2018 marks the 150th anniversary of a number of constitutional conventions in Southern states during Reconstruction. One lasting achievement was creating universal education systems.
women in a reading room at Smith College in 1898

The Reading Rooms Designed to Protect Women from “Library Loafers”

In the late 1800s, American women began to move more freely in public. In response, public libraries created sex-segregated reading rooms, intended to keep women in their proper place.
Rey Star Wars

The Last Jedi’s Twisted Theory of the Self

In Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Rey and Kylo Ren share a telepathic bond forged by the Force, brilliantly illustrating Douglas Hofstadter's "Strange Loop" theory of the self.
Senior Couple on Road Trip

What Retirees Can Learn from the RV Community

A look at the RV community, where retirees support one another in the face of illness, mechanical breakdowns, or sudden financial shortfalls.
Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton

How Anti-Catholicism Created an American Saint

Elizabeth Ann Seton is known today as the first American Roman Catholic saint. Her road to canonization was no easy path.
picture books

Why Picture Books Were Once Considered Dangerous for Children

For Puritan New England, picture books were dangerous. But the Enlightenment, by way of John Locke, made illustrations more acceptable in the classroom.
Fresh vegetables

Why Americans Love Diets

On a diet or cleanse in the new year? You're continuing in the very American tradition of self-perfection.
Zika_Mosquito

What Do We Lose When We Lose a Species?

Debates about the moral value of biodiversity are longstanding in the world of environmental ethics, and the issue is far from settled.
classroom blackboard

How Blackboards Transformed American Education

Looking at the history of U.S. education, Steven D. Krause argues that that most transformative piece of technology in the classroom was the blackboard.
Compleat Housewife frontispiece

What Amateur Cookbooks Reveal About History

Remember those spiral-bound cookbooks from your church group or your mom’s favorite charity? Those amateur recipe collections are history books, too.