Halloween’s origins are more complicated than the familiar story of an ancient Celtic festival. From Samhain and Christian traditions to modern popular culture, its history reveals how seasonal custom...

[Just over a year ago, Vaughn finalized and we launched this new public scholarly website, Black & White & Read All Over. There’s a lot about the site and what it has brought out of and added to our w...

Beyond the trenches, the Western Front fought a second war: tuberculosis in France, occupation-driven epidemics in Belgium, and the quiet health toll on neutral Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands. A ...

Dark Academia romanticises books, old libraries and university life. But what happens when learning becomes an aesthetic, reading becomes a competition and exhaustion becomes something to admire? Perh...

Behind the trenches of World War I lurked a quieter killer: disease. Discover how typhus, malnutrition, mental trauma and mass migration shaped the health of soldiers and civilians alike, and how cens...

How did Marvel transform the film industry? From the shared universe to transmedia fandom, the MCU turned individual superhero films into an interconnected franchise. But can its greatest strength, in...

Ben Railton's daily blog on all things AmericanStudies

What lies beneath the magic of Harry Potter? From blood purity and social inequality to political power, marginalised groups, Hermione’s feminism and the strength of a mother’s love, the wizarding wor...

When did the Middle Ages actually begin and when did they end? The answer depends on where you look. From 476 to 1492 and beyond, medieval chronology has never been as straightforward as it seems.

How did Marvel transform the film industry? From the shared universe to transmedia fandom, the MCU turned individual superhero films into an interconnected franchise. But can its greatest strength, in...

Learn about the Mesolithic period: climate change, stone tools, diet, and how it differed from the Paleolithic.

Study of 10,000 animal bones reveals how Roman soldiers on the Danube shifted from livestock to more hunting and fishing.

A critical look at García Márquez's Until August – how critics and readers reacted to its male-gazed heroine, its unfinished feel, and the decade-long debate over publishing a dead author's final, inc...

Discover the fluid nature of the Prometheus myth. From ancient satire to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and modern digital art, explore how the Promethean man shapes high technology, progress, and moral ...

The younger Bukowski wrote, to paraphrase, that it's always better if the writer actually experiences the material for his texts. Later, he admitted: “To not to have entirely wasted one's life seems t...

Greek colonisation of the Adriatic was far more complex than peaceful expansion. Discover how colonies such as Pharos, Issa and Corcyra reshaped the eastern Adriatic through migration, conflict, trade...

Here it is, my 284th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share as widely as possible, & enjoy,...

Continuing our History Workshop World Cup series, Richard Mills explores the role football played in establishing diplomatic ties between Tito’s […]

From Sicily to the Black Sea, Greek colonisation reshaped the ancient Mediterranean. But how did it actually work, and who was behind it? The story is more organised, and more political. To find out m...

Happy 250th, America! My gift to you, as is the tradition of course, is all the phenomenal public scholarly writing, podcasts, & books in my 283rd #ScholarSunday thread. Add more below, please share a...

Greek colonisation was a long process shaped by trade, migration, and contact across the Mediterranean. From the 8th to the 6th century BC, Greeks founded new settlements that transformed the ancient ...

Published in 1999, Disgrace is a novel that leaves a nauseating sensation from the first page to the last – and a question that lingers long after: what does it mean to read it today, after MeToo?

[June 25th marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Little Big Horn, one of countless fraught moments across the long history of the so-called “Indian Wars.” There are few more frustrating, more t...

An Auteur Approach to The Producers (1967)

Was the Roman Empire built not only by armies and politics, but also by climate? Climate research reveals how a warmer Mediterranean supported Rome's rise and how changing temperatures, famine and pl...

An Environmental Approach to Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)

The Marquis de Morès was an extraordinary villain in an epoch crowded with the vile and the louche. After he killed a...

Then is finally now—it’s Mel Brooks’ 100th birthday! I think the maestro of mensches would agree that there’s no better way to celebrate this momentous occasion than with a thread of phenomenal public...

From shaded courtyards to the cooling splash of impluviums, Romans designed their homes to fight the summer heat. Long before air conditioning, they used architecture to live with the sun—not against ...

Light Academia is an internet subculture built around an idealized academic life. It focuses on the joy of learning, friendships, and light aesthetics. However, its romanticized view erases the harsh ...