Daniel Walker Howe, 88, Revisionist Historian of Jackson’s America, Dies

www.nytimes.com

In a Pulitzer-winning book, he saw modern America’s origins not so much in one president’s policies as in the sweeping social and technological changes wrought in the years 1815-48.

Capitalism by Sven Beckert review – an extraordinary history of the economic system that controls our lives

www.theguardian.com

The Harvard professor provides a ceaseless flow of startling details in this exhaustively researched, 1000-year account

A Colorful History of Pooping on El Capitan, By the Decades

www.climbing.com

From bomb squads to flying bags of excrement, these are the greatest untold El Cap poop stories from the Yosemite archives.

The High Adrenaline, Extremely Lucrative World of 19th Century Clipper Ship Captains

crimereads.com

The snow continued for a week, stopping even the mail and the telegram service. The snow just kept falling and somewhere south of them the Cornelia Lawrence was still sitting in the shipyard. Watch…

Bermuda: The Long and the Shorts of It – JSTOR Daily

daily.jstor.org

A tiny Atlantic outpost once central to Britain’s colonial world, Bermuda’s calm seas conceal centuries of trade, slavery, and superstition.

50 Years of Pride Part 3: Remembering the Launch of the Original ‘pride of Baltimore’ – Pride of Baltimore

pride2.org

This week gives us a wonderful excuse to honor one of Baltimore’s most legendary ships. As we mark the December 12, 1812 launch of Chasseur, it’s the perfect moment to revisit her remarkable legacy. If Hollywood ever needs a ready-made maritime blockbuster, they could start with Captain Thomas Boyle and the schooner Chasseur. Daring Atlantic crossings, bold proclamations in the heart of London, and battles against larger ships, her story reads like pure adventure. As we approach the anniversary this Friday, we’ll share just a few highlights from her globe-spanning saga and we think they’ll leave you wanting more.

Explaining the Tides Before Newton – JSTOR Daily

daily.jstor.org

Astronomical explanations for tides, usually credited to Isaac Newton, can be traced to thinkers like Strabo and Pliny in the Classical era.

What Does “Capitalism” Really Mean, Anyway

www.newyorker.com

In a new global history, capitalism is an inescapable vibe—responsible for everything, everywhere, all at once.In September, 1639, John Winthrop, the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, recorded in his journal a dreadful tale of Puritan true crime. One Robert…

Green Sickness, the Disease of Virgins – JSTOR Daily

daily.jstor.org

In the mid-seventeenth century, John Graunt, the “father of English statistics,” claimed dozens of young women in London died of green sickness every year.

When Historians Rediscovered These Frederick Douglass Letters, They Were Surprised by His Candid Opinions About Abraham Lincoln

www.smithsonianmag.com

In correspondence with a passionate abolitionist in London, the great American orator didn't hold back when talking about the 16th president, or his successor, the much-maligned Andrew Johnson

The Founding Father Who Lost A Leg Romanced Married And Single Women Alike And Escaped The Bloodshed Of The French Revolution

www.smithsonianmag.com

Gouverneur Morris wrote the preamble to the Constitution and shaped the future of the nascent United States. Later in life, he rejected the foundational document as a failure

99 Problems: The Ice Cream Truck’s Surprising History – Longreads

longreads.com

From crime panics to TikTok, summer’s favorite vehicle has driven a bumpy road.

The Engines and Empires of New York City Gambling

www.newyorker.com

As plans are laid for a new casino, one can trace, through four figures, a history of rivalry and excess, rife with collisions of character and crime.A dream book is an anatomy of dreams, with numbers trailing after. For more…

How Libraries Stand the Test of Time – JSTOR Daily

daily.jstor.org

The digital era builds upon millennia of librarianship as humans strive to preserve our cultural heritage.

Was the Renaissance Real

www.newyorker.com

We celebrate the period as a golden age of cultural rebirth. But two new books argue that the Renaissance, as we imagine it, is little more than myth.With minimal ingenuity, any historical period can be made to dissolve into the…

Robert FitzRoy and the Laws of Storms

JSTOR Daily

Fierce gales hit the Irish Sea in late October 1859. The storm wrecked more than 200 ships, killed over 700 people, and shocked a nation reliant on the sea for its economic and military strength. Many of the dead were on the ship Royal Charter, after which the storm was named.

Discover the Short Life and Long Legacy of Casimir Pulaski, a Polish Cavalry Officer Who Became an American Revolutionary Hero

On the first Monday in March, Pulaski Day festivities at Chicago's Polish Museum of America honored the "Father of American Cavalry," 280 years after his birth

You Can’t Trust Elites. Just Ask a 500-Year-Old German Peasant.

The German Peasants’ War was the greatest social explosion in Europe before the French Revolution. As Lyndal Roper explains in “Summer of Fire and Blood,” her engrossing new history of the upheaval, “It all began with snails.”