The great English essayist and linguist Samuel Johnson was writing during the Enlightenment – the period some historians identify as... more

The problem of gun violence is as old as guns themselves. According to historian Priya Satia, America’s present epidemic of... more

What if racism shared an origin with opposition to racism? What if the condemnation of injustice gave rise both to... more

Race is sometimes treated as a biological fact. It is actually a modern invention. But for this concept to gain... more

What is the “traditional American family?” Popular images from the colonial and pioneer past suggest an isolated and self-sufficient nuclear... more

Genealogy, in Charles Darwin’s terms, is the study of “descent with modification.” Taken as an analogy for the study of... more

We often think of modernity as a distinct time period in history – one that is said to start at... more

We all know many stories about how modernity came about. But what does it mean to be “modern”? This episode... more

At the dawn of European exploration, the Renaissance polymath Francis Bacon dreamed of resurrecting the Garden of Eden. Driving this... more

Absorbing the full reality of climate change will require more than a scientific approach. Some American Jews are showing how... more