How Lobbyists Normalized the Use of Chemical Weapons on American Civilians
Or, how we learned to stop worrying and love the gas. An excerpt from Anna Feigenbaum’s book, Tear Gas: From the Battlefields of WWI to the Streets of Today.
We Should Be Talking About the Effect of Climate Change on Cities
But we’re not. Instead, the effects on cities tend to be edited out or statistically minimized. An excerpt from Extreme Cities: The Peril and Promise of Urban Life in the Age of Climate Change by Ashley Dawson.
A Sociology of the Smartphone
Smartphones have altered the texture of everyday life, digesting many longstanding spaces and rituals, and transforming others beyond recognition.
In 1971, the People Didn’t Just March on Washington — They Shut It Down
The most influential large-scale political action of the ’60s was actually in 1971, and you’ve never heard of it. It was called the Mayday action, and it provides invaluable lessons for today.
The Story of Vicente, Who Murdered His Mother, His Father, and His Sister
The following excerpt appears courtesy of Verso Books. The passage—the book’s opening chapter—details a single terrible crime, which Rodriguez Nieto uses as an inroad to discussing Juárez’s emergent culture of crime.
Vagabonds, Crafty Bauds, and the Loyal Huzza: A History of London at Night
In the 16th & 17th centuries, “nightwalking” was a transgressive act in a city still on the brink of total nighttime illumination, but with complex implications depending on your social status.
