Livia Gershon

In the years after the Civil War, some wanted a new seat of government that would be closer to the geographic center of a growing nation.

Having more than one wife was an established part of life for some Native peoples before Europeans tried to end the practice.

Three hundred years ago, Cotton Mather starred in a debate about treating smallpox that tore Boston apart.

Travelers brought the Chinese game to American shores in the early 1920s. Why was it such a hit?

From "insurrection" to "rebellion" to "Civil War," finding a name for the conflict was always political.

The first edition of the beloved novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory featured "pygmy" characters taken from Africa.

Born 14 years after the nation's founding, the tenth commander-in-chief still has one living grandson.

"Hispanic" as the name of an ethnicity is contested today. But the category arose from a political need for unity.

The short-lived radical movement within feminism has gotten a bad reputation for centering white women's experiences. Is that deserved?

“The idea that the federal government would be providing emergency relief and emergency work was extraordinary,” one sociologist said. “And people liked it.”

It was only in the 20th century that toolboxes became staples in the homes of middle-class men.

The wildly popular books helped people understand farming and health through the movement of the planets, in a way compatible with Protestantism.

The story of the 1890 massacre was often about the end of Native American resistance to US expansion. But that’s not how everyone told it.

The measure of thermal energy expended by exercise was adapted from the study of explosives and engines.

In the Great Depression, Borden sought a new spokescow to help preserve its traditional agrarian image.

In 1790, U.S. men were about twice as likely as U.S. women to be literate. But by 1870, girls were surpassing boys in public schools.

Southern legal codes included parallel language pairing “master and slave” and “husband and wife.”

The heroines of 1970s and 80s teen horror movies were traditionally feminine, tough, and sexually confident.

Between 1870 and 1960, Christianity declined dramatically across much of Europe. Not in America. One historian explains why.

When Silent Spring was published, the response was overtly gendered. Rachel Carson's critics depicted her as hysterical, mystical, and witchy.

Scholars don't typically pay that much attention to smells, but odors have historically been quite significant.

At the turn of the century, Chicago police killed 307 people, one in eighteen homicides in the city—three times the body count of local gangsters.

In the late 19th century, more women were becoming librarians. Experts predicted they would suffer ill health and breakdowns.

Growth is only worth something if it makes people feel good.