We may still take the best of what calling cards have to offer: a more robust etiquette for managing our digital, social lives on a more humane timescale.

Kirsten Hall loses her phone and looks to the 18th Century for guidance.

Millions waited for a new, unknown magic to save the world from a final tragedy. The occultic had returned, but no one knew how to see it anymore.

Jason Blakely imagines the rise and fall of science and the occult.

Disney’s atom acts as an all-powerful sentient being, radioisotopes resemble the magical dust of Tinkerbell, and atomic energy emerges as the ultimate transmutation of matter that can lead to limitless health and wealth.

Christopher Fite finds a mix of power, ideology, and racism in a Disney film

Douthat begs us to consider the possibilities that we reached for in the past, less out of nostalgia, and more as inspiration: a cry of ‘Why not?’ that can lift us beyond screens, comfort, and deadlock toward a common goal.

Michael J. Nevadomski reviews Ross Douthat’s The Decadent Society.

The racialization of crime in the United States can be traced all the way back to the earliest legislation directly addressing race relations: the slave codes.

Miranda Pilipchuk traces a genealogy of racism and sexism in the American judicial system.

Instead of free-thinking Deists, a new generation of physicians argued that the experience of paranormal phenomena indicated a kind of mental or physiological illness.

Richard Yoder looks to early modernity to examine magic, science, and the origins of modernity.

We are dealing with a ghost ship, a reminder that the modernity we seek to understand is profoundly haunted.

Christopher Fite asks what a “haunted modernity” means for the history of science.

Kirsten Hall revisits literary history and compares our current COVID-19 pandemic to pandemics of the past.

Timothy Barr discusses genealogy at the economics of inheritance.

Kirsten Hall responds to David Brooks and the decline of the nuclear family.

Kirsten Hall addresses problems with pedagogy in today’s classrooms and creates a genealogical syllabus.

Terence Sweeney reviews Unbelievers: An Emotional History of Doubt.

Timothy Barr reflects on popular culture the way stars still influence us—whether Taylor Swift or Sirius.

Terence Sweeney explores two genealogies of racism: Original Sin or corrupt DNA.

Books to consider from Terence Sweeney, our Editor-at-Large

Ryan McDermott explains the evolution of biological genealogies

Timothy DeCelle explores Thomas Paine’s writings on wealth and poverty

Kirsten Hall explains how college survey courses don’t always get history right and finds the delightful oddities of the 18th Century

Timothy Barr muses on the music of Björk

Kirsten Hall compares 18th century hair trends with contemporary minimalist fashion