JSTOR
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Only the Lives Worth Saving
For JSTOR Daily, Tara Isabella Burton revisits Prohibition during the Coolidge administration, when the moral outrage that pushed for Prohibition didn’t extend to saving the lives of people dying from poisoned industrial alcohol: …[the] New York of the 1920’s viewed…
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Building the Idea of Home
At JSTOR Daily, Livia Gershon offers a brief history of the concept of “home.” Gershon traces the changes not only in the emerging role of the home as a private retreat, but also the people who could define a household…
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The Comic Tragedy of King Lear
Matthew Wills writes for JSTOR Daily on the romcom interpretation of King Lear. Wills brings to attention the fact that for almost two centuries, a version of Shakespeare’s Lear by poet Nahum Tate, one with little tragedy and a happy…
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The Downfall of the Pun
Punning surprises us by flouting the law of nature which pretends that two things cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Where does the pun come from? And why does it prompt ubiquitous eye-rolls? Dive into the history…
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The Start of Visual Literacy
For JSTOR Daily, Allana Mayer writes about what it means to master visual literacy. Mayer specifically addresses the idea that libraries and galleries digitizing their content will instantly make people more literate with visual art. Instead, competency with visual art…
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Photography and the European Refugee Crisis
At JSTOR Daily, Jon Greenaway revisits Susan Sontag’s writing on photography (specifically in On Photography and Regarding the Pain of Others) through the lens of Europe’s current refugee crisis.
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The (Im)Purity of Language
At JSTOR Daily, linguist Chi Luu makes a case for emphasizing grammar rules that follow popular usage, rather than the pedantic standards set by centuries-dead classicists. Here are the plain facts: many of these pop grammar rules… were magically pulled…
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Origins of the Book Club
At JSTOR Daily, Pamela Burger follows the history of women’s book clubs from their progressive 19th century origins to their recent Oprah-inspired revival: In many ways, these older groups paved the way for women to view themselves as having a…
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The Last of Their Words
Chi Luu writes for JSTOR Daily on the rapid extinction of the world’s languages and linguists’ efforts to preserve these dying languages for future generations. On the surface, there isn’t anything wrong with people wanting to communicate with each other…
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A College Education, Measured and Graded and Ranked and Weighed
The [Department of Education’s] report states: “In today’s world, college is not a luxury that only some Americans can afford to enjoy; it is an economic, civic, and personal necessity for all Americans.” Most defenders of the liberal arts would…
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A Success for Public Access to Information!
Remember when Aaron Swartz challenged the US Government by illegally downloading over 4 million articles from JSTOR, in hopes of breaking down the barriers that prevent public access to information? He was facing some major charges including a million dollar…
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Open Knowledge vs. US Government
Aaron Swartz, former Demand Progress Executive Director, political activist and Cambridge Web Entrepreneur, was arrested for illegally downloading over 4 million articles from the nonprofit subscription-based internet archive, JSTOR. Swartz’s activism is directed towards the “free flow of information,” and…