Modern History

Modern History

A section of a map labeled "West McKinley Town Site" with surrounding property names and numbers in blue and orange text.
A century ago, an American colony named after Trump's favorite president was thriving on the Isle of Pines. Then came hurricanes and geopolitical reality.
Five World War I soldiers in uniform stand and sit near sandbags in a trench, with a sign reading "Surrey Lane" visible in the background—evoking camaraderie amid the Ring of Fire on the front lines.
Historians Alexandra Churchill and Nicolai Eberholst reexamine the pivotal conflict from a grassroots perspective.
A colorful, spinning galaxy with a bright orange core, existing for 12 billion years, is surrounded by smaller galaxies and star clusters against a black space background.
Large, massive, rotating galaxies like the Milky Way are common today. So how could one form a mere ~2 billion years after the Big Bang?
A collage featuring the text "Forgotten Hardships," images of a struggling family, a graph, a historical farming scene, hands with a skin condition, and an illustration of a caliper.
9 minutes of cruel history may cure the anti-progress delusion.
A map of europe with pink dots on it.
Thanks to protocols established centuries ago in Europe, world leaders no longer need to worry about having their heads bashed with an axe.
Stonehenge in england.
The clash of academic archaeology and what might be called folk archaeology comes into stark focus at Stonehenge.
A group of men studying Japanese philosophy.
Traditionally, the long history of Japanese thought has not been viewed as “philosophy” — even by Japanese scholars. It’s time for a rethink.
An ancient map depicting the independence of the United States.
The global extent of the Revolutionary War surprises many Americans today — but it was crucial to independence.
A man and woman in top hats explore Berlin nightclubs via pneumatic tubes.
You could send your potential paramour a perfume bottle, a cigar cutter, travel plans — or maybe some cocaine.
The world set free by Rachel Wells, inspired by Oppenheimer.
Science fiction met nuclear fission when Hungarian physicist Leó Szilárd pondered the explosive potential of nuclear energy.
an image of a star burst in the sky.
What began as an annoyance ended as a Nobel Prize-winning discovery about the Big Bang and the origin of the Universe.
In 1903, a Vermont doctor bet $50 that he could cross America by car. It took him 63 days, $8,000, and 600 gallons of gas.
Roman Republic banquet
Studying the display of personal wealth across time can help us better understand the history of socioeconomic inequality.
Is history decided by discernible laws or does it unfold based on random, unpredictable occurrences?
The weird and wild ways mummy fever swept through Europe.
economic sanctions
We pretend as if economic sanctions are a peaceful way to coerce others into behaving. In reality, they are a potent tool of modern warfare.
da vinci helicopter
Da Vinci dreamed up a helicopter 400 years before they actually existed. Now, engineers have brought his design to life, but with a twist.
ukraine
Russia has long sought to erase the mere idea of Ukraine. But people like my grandmother, born in Druzhkivka, will not let Russia win.
History Photography
For a long time, important events could only be visualized retroactively through paintings. Photography allowed us to capture history as — or sometimes even before — it happened.