JSTOR Daily stories provide background - historical, scientific, literary, political, and otherwise - for understanding our world.

JSTOR Daily

Although it often gets a bad reputation, sci-fi offers readers a way to rethink social dilemmas.

Books like "Harry Potter" and "The Hunger Games" may be rooted in magical or completely dystopian worlds but at their core, there are "examples of young people grappling with serious social, economic, and political issues that are timely and relevant." In this piece for JSTOR Daily, Esther Jones — Associate Professor of English at Clark University — explains why this is a powerful tool for younglings, as it encourages them to think critically about the real world early in their own lives.

This story was originally published in JSTOR Daily in May 2020.

Sharon Bott

Sci-fi and fantasy build mental resiliency in young readers

Britain's forgotten language.

Marginalised by society, gay, lesbian and queer people had to invent their own secret languages. Chi Luu tells us the remarkable history of polari.

"Polari (or Parlary, Palarie, as it’s also known, from the Italian 'to talk') is one lost language from Britain that became primarily associated with gay men (and to a lesser extent with lesbians). Its rich, rollicking, madcap patchwork linguistics was cobbled out of the threads of the secret 'anti-languages' used by subcultures on the very edges of society, the low slang used by thieves, itinerant sailors, fishmongers, travelling circus performers, beggars, prostitutes, and (of course) theatre people. Seemingly a linguistic home to everyone from everywhere, it creatively mixed in elements from Elizabethan thieves’ cant, the Italian-influenced carnival speech Parlyaree, Cockney rhyming slang, backwards slang, Yiddish, and Lingua Franca, the sailors’ argot."

Nick Camm

The unspeakable linguistics of camp 

Black History Month: Analysing the power of organising, even between seemingly disparate groups.

In the late 1960s, young people were leading movements all over the world to oppose war, imperialism, and racism. In Germany, historian Maria Höhn reflects for JSTOR Daily on the odd pairing of radical German students and black US soldiers.

"The collaboration led to the creation of an underground newspaper, Voice of the Lumpen. Its most significant work was following the case of the 'Ramstein Two' — two Black Panthers and former GIs who were arrested after exchanging fire with a German civilian guard outside Ramstein air base. Organizing around the trial gave activists a chance to draw attention to connections between American and German racism, and to West Germany’s collaboration with U.S. foreign policy."

Ashley Klanac

African-American GIs and German radicals: an unexpected alliance

The philosophical answer to why we can't stop daydreaming about adventures gone by.

"Travel is a commodity, a privilege, and a state of mind; a comfort to some and a trial to others." It's the one thing most people around the world weren't able to do in 2020, and one that everyone's hoping to do in 2021. But, how much do we know about the psychological reasons we do it? Lorraine Boissoneault contemplates in JSTOR Daily.

This story was originally published in JSTOR Daily in March 2016.

The end of the tour: why do we travel?

Netflix's hit show "Bridgerton" is based on the famous romantic sub-genre.

The Britsh Regency era lasted less than a decade, but it spawned a staggering number of unlikely fictional marriages, following common traits that "include an anachronistically independent heroine who must contend with strict social rules, a Season packed with balls and dances, vicious gossip that spreads like wildfire, and a happily-ever-after with a reformed rake of a duke (or viscount)." In this insightful piece for JSTOR Daily, Jess Romeo examines the genre's appeal and why it continues to resonate so strongly even today.

David Riley

Why are so many romances set in the Regency period?

More than 100 years ago, Sylvia Beach, opened the doors to her legendary bookstore.

The first publisher of James Joyce’s Ulysses opened the doors to her bookshop, Shakespeare & Co. Jamison Pfeifer recounts in JSTOR Daily the story of the legendary booksellers, from its chaotic beggings to stoic wartime resilience.

The patron saint of bookstores

A utopian strain in sci-fi fandom brought readers uncomfortably close to an alignment with fascism.

"Science fiction is often a vehicle for social and political ideas, from celebrations of high-tech space colonialism to warnings about the misuse of technology." Livia Gershon explores in JSTOR Daily the self-styled ‘supermen’ of the 1940s, who imagined themselves as the heroes of a sci-fi story about a genetically advanced human race.

The self-styled sci-fi supermen of the 1940s

Our newest culinary trend is also our oldest.

What exactly are comfort foods? Well, while science narrows it down to their nutritional value — often high fat and sugar dishes that provide temporary stress relief — it's also a matter of heartstrings and memory. April White contemplates this gastronomic and emotional question for JSTOR Daily.

Penny Andrews

A brief history of comfort food

The White House Transition project is a pivotal resource for a newcomer government — here is how it works.

We take a look at this piece from Erin Blakemore for JSTOR Daily, where she analyses Martha Joynt Kumar's interviews with White House staffers through the years, giving us interesting insights.

Ken Foster

How do White House transitions actually work?

Looking for the ghosts of the Morris-Jumel mansion.

‘Eliza, is that you?’ Sarah Laskow, from Lapham's Quarterly, investigates the hunt for the ghost of one remarkable 18th-century woman, in a Manhattan mansion.

Allyson Johnson

The haunting of a heights house

In American society, white women are often understood as victims. But they can also be perpetrators.

The Women’s KKK, an affiliated-but-separate racist organization for white Protestant women, courted members through an insincere "empowerment feminism.” Emily Cataneo, from JSTOR Daily, takes a closer look.

A brief history of the women’s KKK

Analysing the psychology of voting.

As author Ben Ambridge explains, psychologically speaking the “rational choice” model alone is not something that can fully account for voting behaviour. So, what does? Here, we revisit his enlightening 2014 piece for JSTOR Daily and find out.

Malk Williams

PSY-Q: “It’s the psychology, stupid.” What really decides elections?

The story of a prosperous African-American community, tragically seen as a threat to white-dominated American capitalism.

Despite the evil of segregation, a middle-class African American neighbourhood prospered in 1920s Oklahoma. But it was not to last, Kimberly Fain describes in JSTOR Daily the fateful night Black Wall Street went up in flames.

Molly Ward

The devastation of Black Wall Street

The differences between "women's tastes" and "men's tastes" are long entrenched in American cultural history.

"As the stereotype goes, meat is manly and women love salad.
Or is it that simple? A look back at the food writing directed at men in the period following the Second World War reveals a different relationship between men and salad. In this era, making and eating a salad wasn't frilly and feminine, but was actually one of the most masculine things a man could do." Manisha Claire, for JSTOR Daily, reminisces about the days when, unlike today, salad was considered a manly meal.

Alexia Kombou

When salad was manly AF

Emperors were also married to women, but their male companions were an important part of their lives.

While 21st century Europe is seen as the leader of modern LGBTQ+ rights, in ancient history, records indicate that Empires such China’s Han dynasty were some of the first to accept queer relationships, explains Sarah Prager in JSTOR Daily.

Sarah Naughton

In Han dynasty China, bisexuality was the norm

Is contemporary rapper Kendrick Lamar continuing Tupac Shakur’s legacy as a hip hop saviour? 

Monica Miller, writing in JSTOR Daily, takes a look at the mythic themes in Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 number 1 album, 'To Pimp a Butterfly'. 

Butterfly Flow: Tupac, Kendrick Lamar, And The Resurrection Of New Black Godz 

Are children as guilty as adults when they commit a crime? 

Katie Rose Quandt, writing in JSTOR Daily, explores how the US criminal system is the only one in the world to give life sentences to minors.

Andi Arndt

Why does the U.S. sentence children to life in prison? 

Children's world is a lot darker, weirder and perhaps more creatively resilient than adults often assume.

The game of cooties lets children learn about the idea of contagion, but kid culture and wordplay aren’t meant for adults. Amid parents' anxiety to explain the coronavirus crisis to their kids, JSTOR Daily's resident linguist Chi Luu, analyses why communication between kids themselves is often sufficient and resourceful for matters like these.

Teri Schnaubelt

The linguistics of cooties (and other weird things kids say)

Slimy yet shocking, the electric eel fuels the fears of many an aquatic imagination. 

James MacDonald, writing in JSTOR Daily, reveals some little-known but amazing facts about the animal. 

5 shocking facts about electric eels

If you remember something that didn't happen, are you still responsible for it?

Analysing the story of six convicted murderers and rapists that were proven innocent, but which among one still maintained their guilt and the plot of Black Mirror's episode White Bear, Kevin Litman-Navarro wonders how closely tied we are to our memories. Published in JSTOR Daily.

Radical questions: Am I my memories?

MTurk has ushered in a golden age in survey research, so is it ethical?

"The sudden availability of a conscientious, diverse, non-student source of survey respondents has led to something of a golden age in survey research." Alexandra Samuel, writing in JSTOR Daily, considers.

Melissa Moran

Amazon’s Mechanical Turk has reinvented research

Understanding the revealing, but often overlooked language of murder.

From a remote cabin in Montana, the Unabomber built, sent and delivered murderous letter bombs for almost 20 years. Chi Luu looks at how it was his careful but idiosyncratic use of language that ultimately gave him away.

Fighting words with the Unabomber

Colombia and Haiti have both been ignited by protests - did it start 200 years ago?

As part of what looks like a global uprising against austerity, corruption, and unaccountable politicians, people in Colombia and Haiti have been demanding change on the streets. Writing in JSTOR Daily, Mohammed Elnaiem explains how the seeds may have been planted by Simon Bolívar over 200 years ago.