August 15, 2025
July 16, 2015
In the 1960s, affluent American volunteers lined up to serve the neediest abroad. But the radical Catholic priest Ivan Illich urged them to reconsider their missionary zeal—“you will not help anybody by your good intentions.”
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July 10, 2015
An Ancient Greek play gets new life, reconstructing Noah’s Ark, and the origins of the ticker-tape parade.
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July 02, 2015
Confederate bedtime stories, all-American coffee, and a pair of royal underpants.
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June 30, 2015
As J.P. Morgan’s personal librarian, Belle da Costa Greene uncovered the Victorian forger who flooded the market with fake medieval art.
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June 26, 2015
Using leeches to cure what ails you, endangered historic sites, and a 1941 beard-off.
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June 19, 2015
A trash-culture icon, Napoleonic cosplay, and what, exactly, is euchre?
Read MoreJune 16, 2015
During the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s, “Soapy” Smith made a fortune taking advantage of would-be millionaires. A hundred years later, the aspirational rich are still the easiest targets.
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June 11, 2015
George Washington goes all-natural, Amelia Earhart makes an on-screen appearance, and two early meteorologists battle for supremacy.
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June 10, 2015
From agape to zakat, philanthropic words and their definitions.
Read More2023:
Fitness instructor carves his girlfriend’s name into the Colosseum.
c. 1850:
Thompson of Sunderland makes his mark on Pompey’s pillar.
2023:
Writers on strike search for romance at the picket line.
c. 1945:
Young communists engage in party matchmaking.