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Burnout: Modern Affliction or Human Condition?

As a diagnosis, it’s too vague to be helpful—but its rise tells us a lot about the way we work.
Industry at Night, by Horatio C. Forjohn, 1940.

Weary of Work

When factories created a population of tired workers, a new frontier in fatigue studies was born.
Image of plastic human figurine hunched over at a desk and computer.

How the Personal Computer Broke the Human Body

Decades before 'Zoom fatigue' broke our spirits, the so-called computer revolution brought with it a world of pain previously unknown to humankind.
Subject in sensory deprivation in 1957 isolation study

American Solitude

Notes toward a history of isolation.

How Americans Came to Distrust Science

For a century, critics of all political stripes have challenged the role of science in society. Repairing distrust requires confronting those arguments head on.

The Radical History of Corporate Sensitivity Training

The modern-day human-resources practice is rooted in avant-garde philosophy.

Married to the Momism

Philip Wylie’s "Generation of Vipers," revisited.
A grilled cheese sandwich.

A Brief History of Comfort Food

Our newest culinary trend is also our oldest.

The Inner Life of American Communism

Vivian Gornick’s and Jodi Dean’s books mine a lost history of comradeship, determination, and intimacy.
Mike Pence in a warehouse.
partner

CEOs Email You Heartfelt Coronavirus Messages, While Still Prioritizing the Bottom Line

Over 100 years, a tactic first designed to keep workers happy morphed into a marketing strategy.

The History of Loneliness

Until a century or so ago, almost no one lived alone; now many endure shutdowns and lockdowns on their own. How did modern life get so lonely?
Choose your own adventure book covers with arrows pointing in opposite directions.

“Oh My God, It’s Milton Friedman for Kids”

How "Choose Your Own Adventure" books indoctrinated ‘80s children with the idea that success is simply the result of individual “good choices.”

Story-Shaped Things

Historians tell stories about the past. A new book argues that those stories are often dangerously wrong.

The Secret History of Fort Detrick, the CIA’s Base for Mind Control Experiments

Today, it’s a cutting-edge lab. In the 1950s and 1960s, it was the center of the U.S. government’s darkest experiments.

A Brief and Awful History of the Lobotomy

Groundbreaking discoveries... but at what cost?

The Theory That Justified Anti-Gay Crime

Fifty years after Stonewall, the gay-panic defense seems absurd. But, for decades, it had the power of law.
Senators Joseph McCarthy and Kenneth Wherry.

Democracy and Misinformation

The Cold War and today.

One Reason Why White People in the South Have More Bias Against Black Americans

Research finds that white people in regions that were heavily dependent on slavery are more likely to harbor unconscious racism.
Nurse administering electroshock therapy to a patient.

The Troubled History of Psychiatry

Challenges to the legitimacy of the profession have forced it to examine itself. What, exactly, constitutes a mental disorder?
Hillary Clinton speaking about early childhood development.

The Mismeasure of Minds

25 years later, The Bell Curve’s analysis of race and intelligence refuses to die.

The Real Roots of American Rage

The untold story of how anger became the dominant emotion in our politics and personal lives—and what we can do about it.

What the Popularity of 'Fortnite' Has in Common With the 20th Century Pinball Craze

Long before parents freaked over the ubiquitous video game, they flipped out over another newfangled fad.

Mesmerising Science: The Franklin Commission and the Modern Clinical Trial

Benjamin Franklin, magnetic trees, and erotically-charged séances.

The 'Father of American Neurology' Prescribed Women Months of Motionless Milk-Drinking

Virginia Woolf and Charlotte Perkins Gilman were both patients of this infamous rest cure.

Teen ‘Boys Will Be Boys’: A Brief History

The concept of adolescence is a recent invention — and it has been applied unevenly to children from different backgrounds.

Rereading Childhood Books Teaches Adults About Themselves

Whether they delight or disappoint, old books provide touchstones for tracking personal growth.
Map of world happiness.

Are Things Getting Better or Worse?

Why assessing the state of the world is harder than it sounds.

The White Man, Unburdened

How Charles Murray stopped worrying and learned to love racism.

It Didn’t Start with Facebook: Surveillance and the Commercial Media

The era of audience exploitation began in earnest thanks in large part to the experiments of Dr. Frank Stanton in the 1930s.

How American Racism Influenced Hitler

Scholars are mapping the international precursors of Nazism.

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