Each year on October 2, the International Day of Non-Violence invites reflection on the principles and practice of nonviolent resistance. Observed on the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, the day also provides an opportunity to consider how movements for political and social change have drawn upon—and reshaped—ideas about peaceful protest, civil disobedience, and moral responsibility across generations and national borders.Historical newspapers and periodicals allow researchers to follow those ideas as they developed in real time. They document not only the words and actions of prominent leaders...

Image Readex Text Explorer, cirrus visualization of Sino-Soviet Conflict. Report on Sino-Soviet Conflict and its Implications. H.Doc. 237, May 14, 1965. From: U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1994 It's October 1962.Two large countries are fighting over a very small part of the world.

How do the places where history happened shape the stories Americans tell about the past?Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Beverly Gage explores that question in a thought-provoking discussion of her new book, This Land Is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History, recorded at the 2026 Readex Break…

On February 3, 1920, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported on a surgeon who was “grafting the intestinal glands of a goat into human beings to cure those treated of sterility.” The report continues: Within the past two years, by means of such operations, Dr. Brinkley has made it possible for three men and one woman to become parents. In all four cases the glands of a male goat were used. In each instance a baby boy was born. In his most recent case Dr. Brinkley used the gland of a female goat. “I do not say this woman will have a girl baby,” said Dr. Brinkley today, “but I am experimenting....

Take a day, and walk around.Watch the Nazis run your town.Then go home and check yourself.You think we’re singing about someone else.— Frank Zappa, “Plastic People”Czechoslovakia’s 1989 Velvet Revolution began not with a bang, but with a band. Specifically, that band was the Plastic People of the Universe, who took their name from a song by American musician Frank Zappa. Their style falls loosely into the Western genre of art rock and was inspired by Zappa’s experimental work with the Mothers of Invention, and by Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground’s “Exploding Plastic Inevitable”...

How do the places where history happened shape the stories Americans tell about the past?Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Beverly Gage explores that question in a thought-provoking discussion of her new book, This Land Is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History, recorded at the 2026 Readex Break…

The Smithsonian Institution and its twenty museums and galleries have been in the news recently. There is controversy.

Built in 1872, in St. Louis, Missouri, the facility originally served as a clinic where female sex workers received testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases.

How do the places where history happened shape the stories Americans tell about the past?

In September and October 2024, two historic hurricanes slammed into Florida's Gulf coast and wreaked havoc into the Appalachia region, impacting 6 states, and resulting in over 230 casualties. It is in these times that we look back and remember other storms that have made a lasting impact on our cou…

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Ah, the Caribbean! Turquoise water, miles of sandy beaches, tropical climate. Island paradises mostly, large and small. The Bahamas. Jamaica. Also, Cuba, but that's another story. Vibrant, ancient cultures with unique resources and vast potential. Perfect destinations for adventure or a relaxing get…

Among several common themes in early books for children, instruction in conduct recurs frequently. Searching American Children’s Books, 1654-1819, a new Readex database, whether using Suggested Searches or employing Advanced Search, will result in many relevant texts. As for girls, the instructions on conduct sometimes coincide with the instructions for boys, but not always.

Ambitious inn and tavern owners in the early 1800s understood the profitability of hosting reputable stagecoach lines. Hungry, tired travelers delivered to your doorstep are ideal clientele. One might imagine an innkeeper going to great lengths to attract these lines, but would these lengths include…

A failed marriage and a wildfire led to the creation in 1902 of Big Basin Redwoods, California's oldest state park. Big Basin contains the largest continuous stand of coast redwoods south of San Francisco, featuring trees hundreds of feet tall and well over a thousand years old. The park would likel…

Before the American Revolution, postal service, such as it was, was administered by the British. Mail within the colonies was sparse, while the preponderance of mail was between North America and Great Britain. Benjamin Franklin was postmaster of Philadelphia when, in 1753, he became one of the two…

In 1871, General A.J. Pleasonton presented ten years' worth of experimental findings to the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture in an effort to "shed light" on a new subject. Standing before them, Pleasonton—a retired Civil War officer whose experience in horticulture and science was limi…

Industrial class opulence, stark social inequality, and unmatched global influence, this mixture of power and disparity not only reshaped the political and social world but also left enduring cultural impacts that defined the Victorian age.For instance, many holiday customs we take for granted, like…

Guest post by Benjamin Pogrund, former deputy editor, Rand Daily Mail

Ambitious inn and tavern owners in the early 1800s understood the profitability of hosting reputable stagecoach lines. Hungry, tired travelers delivered to your doorstep are ideal clientele. One might imagine an innkeeper going to great lengths to attract these lines, but would these lengths include…

In 1780, the newly formed Culper Spy Ring successfully exposed British plans to ambush the French army in Rhode Island. By quickly alerting George Washington to the enemy's plans, the group safeguarded the Franco-American alliance and thwarted a potentially devastating surprise attack. In doing so,…