history
The toilet “is a portal to a mysterious otherworld.”
In war zones, aggressors steal art to eradicate the cultural heritage of others. Victims, meanwhile, sell stolen art in order to survive.
The Pan-American Highway began a century ago with a vision of unfettered motor-vehicle access between Alaska and Tierra del Fuego. What happened to the dream?
Traditionally, the long history of Japanese thought has not been viewed as “philosophy” — even by Japanese scholars. It’s time for a rethink.
The Persian Constitutional Revolution made unlikely allies and enemies of missionaries, ayatollahs, the shah, and his Russian ambassadors. Its legacy shaped modern-day Iran.
Dive into five philosophical schools that have faded into obscurity but still whisper through the ages.
In ancient Rome, collective bathing was the norm. In the West today, it’s the exception — and that’s too bad.
Was the terror of Biscayne Bay a man who escaped slavery, an African chieftain, or a marketing ploy that went viral?
The smartest person in the world was Isaac Newton, a true polymath whose brilliance never has been, nor ever will be, surpassed.
The philosophy of sex is going through a recalibration period.
France’s notorious disregard for washing gradually changed as military authorities and public schools promoted a modern regime of cleanliness.
Science and technology were making early modern Europe a better place to live, but at what cost?
Australian soldiers fighting the Japanese recruited native New Guineans to their campaign.
The stench of death is actually fairly pleasant.
In an attempt to prove Christianity inferior to communism, a Soviet scientist hoped to play God.
In a world without clocks, people used common activities in place of time units. How long it took you to go to the toilet mattered.
Historians have been able to piece together a clear picture of how the average Roman citizen spent their waking hours.
His crime was so great, he was not only sentenced to death but his name was to be erased from memory.
How can you maximize the amount of love and happiness in your life? One of history’s greatest scientists found the answer: with math.
Dive into China’s profound intellectual legacy through five seminal texts that have shaped millennia of thought.
Because the milk was thin and had an unnatural, bluish tint, vendors stirred in additives such as chalk, flour, eggs, and Plaster-of-Paris.
Still, the author’s main argument wasn’t totally discredited.
“Conceptual isolation” offers an agreeable solution.
Though over three billion people speak an Indo-European language, researchers are not sure where the language family originated.
A history of othering, experimentation, and mystery.
It is easy to mock Nobel Laureates who go astray, but eccentricity often accompanies brilliance. We should have some sympathy.
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a medieval airship!
Jung thought these autonomous entities live in your unconscious mind — often at a cost.
Throw away your history books — here’s what life in ancient Rome was really like, according to Cambridge scholar Mary Beard.
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