Brian Merchant’s new book, “Blood in the Machine,” argues that Luddism stood not against technology per se but for the rights of workers in the face of automation.

This is the the fourth part of our our planned five part series (I, II, IIIa, IIIb, IIIc) on the structure of the Roman Republic during the third and second centuries, the ‘Middle’ Republic.’ Over …

In my research, I try to uncover the cultural significance of the placenta and afterbirth in premodern Europe to help us better understand the social and medical history of this important organ.

As I start to make some progress on my new research project on travel, health and risk I am turning my attention to the sorts of things that early modern travellers were fearful of. As a bit of a n…

William Henry Fox Talbot’s obsession with protecting his pioneering photographic process doomed his reputation and reduced his legacy to historical footnote.

VÉgA, for Vocabulary of Ancient Egyptian in French, is an online digital dictionary, born from private/public collaboration within the LabEx Archimede (ANR-II-LABX-0032-01), supported by the CNRS and the University Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3. Its aim is to become an indispensable and regularly update...

When keeping cultural archives safe means stepping outside the law

How to raise a child with taste in eighteenth-century Britain.

Objects made in previous centuries hold great power over us today. Whether it is admiring the stunning craftsmanship of people who lived long ago in much harsher times but still wanted to create so…

Her greatest rebellion against Victorian moralism was to reclaim the sacred for herself.

In the medieval era, men and women both carried personal items in bags or purses. The arrival of clothing with pockets changed that—for men only.

When thirteen-year-old actor William Henry West Betty arrived in London from Ireland, crowds mobbed theaters and camped outside his home.

Folk musicians Pete Dilley, Katy Ryder, Alice Jones and Simon Robinson wrote new music for 19th-century ballads found in the British Library’s collection. The group recorded and performed the ballads as part of the Living with Machines exhibition, co-curated by the British Library and Leeds City Mus...

We Do Not Know the Population of Every Country in the World for the Past Two Thousand Years - Volume 83 Issue 3

How a team of spies in Mexico got their hands on Russia's space secrets—and tried to change the course of the Cold War.

We might think that an album measuring a metre in length would be a cumbersome thing to travel with, but it would probably be made less difficult if you had “100 boats, 87 elephants, 355 camels, 1,033 bullocks, and more than 3,000 attendants” to assist you (Cohen 2014, xxxii). Lady...

Cats at the cathedral were even paid one pence a week for their services.

A newly discovered letter suggests a Newfoundland named Rebel accompanied both Continental and British officers into battle

In ancient times the Japanese divided their year into 24 periods based on classical Chinese sources. The natural world comes to life in the even more vividly named 72 subdivisions of the traditional Japanese calendar.

Not particularly impressive at first glance, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce's View from the Window at Le Gras is a grey-hued pewter plate with the blurred shadow-shapes of treelines and buildings. Despite its unprepossessing appearance, this photograph was integral to the development of modern photography.

How ancient peoples learned to keep a tally.

Let’s take five minutes to lend the Middle Ages an ear.

His name is now the byword for a fool, yet his proof for the existence of God was the most rigorous of the medieval period

This is the first of a planned five-part series looking at the structure of the Roman Republic as another example of civic governance structures in antiquity, to match our series on the Greek polis…

For 1,500 years, we have picked the wrong time and blamed the wrong person for the fall of Rome.

Can recent excavations answer questions about death and demonology in the 1600s?

The snow-covered lands of the Arctic have long been home to the Inuit and Yupik people, two remarkable indigenous groups who have thrived in one of the world’s harshest environments. Among th…

Origins of the Sicilian Mafia: The Market for Lemons - Volume 77 Issue 4

Trends in alcohol consumption from the middle ages to the modern world tell a story.

The Devil's Bible, the Largest Extant Medieval Manuscript, is 92 cm Tall.