History & Society

History & Society

Trace how culture, power, and ideas shape societies across time.

A robotic hand holds a striped rocket in front of a green upward-trending line graph on a black patterned background.
Higher productivity drives increases in wealth, wages, and living standards. AI could be just what we need to solve many of today’s problems — if we manage the gains wisely.
Book cover for "The Moys of New York and Shanghai" by Charlotte Brooks, featuring a historical portrait of a woman seated beside a small table, evoking the era and heritage central to The Moys of New York and Shanghai.
A preview of the latest book by Chinese history expert Charlotte Brooks
An older man in a suit sits on a chair in front of a backdrop showing a dramatic classical painting of chaos and destruction.
1hr 43mins
Historian Eric Cline argues the Bronze Age collapse wasn't the work of one invading force or one bad harvest, but something far harder to stop: An overly interdependent system that had no way to absorb multiple shocks at once.
Book cover of "No Friend to This House" by Natalie Haynes, featuring an ornate dagger, decorative lines, and a quote noting her as the bestselling author of "Stone Blind." A striking design hints that danger is no friend of this house.
A preview of the latest novel by the New York Times bestselling author.
A satellite with large solar panels orbits above Earth against a colorful space background, where the cosmic clouds resemble the Hand of God carved by a dead star.
The path to exploring the high-energy Universe was clear and compelling. Here's how 2025's cuts are still causing NASA casualties in 2026.
A blue hand holding a tool touches a red illustrated brain, with brain wave patterns shown in the background.
A new framework suggests that bursts of neural chaos could be the fingerprints of a conscious mind at work.
warm-hot intergalactic medium sculptor wall
In traveling through the expanding Universe, particles slow down while light and gravitational waves redshift. What degrades and what won't?
Book cover for "Separation of Powers" by Cass R. Sunstein, featuring bold red, white, and blue text blocks that highlight the importance of separation of powers, with the subtitle "How to Preserve Liberty in Troubled Times.
In this excerpt from Separation of Powers, Cass Sunstein explains how the U.S. Constitution prevents such a concentration of authority from turning democracy into despotism.
particle physics destroy universe
Smashing things together at unprecedented energies sounds dangerous. But it's nothing the Universe hasn't already seen, and survived.
No civilization, no matter how successful, can last forever. What does the non-detection of intelligent aliens mean for our own longevity?
A person with purple hands holds a phone displaying text messages that read, "OMG then what happened??.
Throughout history, the ability to tell increasingly believable stories has become available to more people. Kevin Ashton says that’s a blessing and a curse.
A view of a star-filled night sky with numerous bright stars and distant galaxies, including Hubble-dark galaxy formations, scattered across a dark background.
The discovery of CDG-2, a galaxy that's more than 99.9% dark matter, could reveal a new population of ultra-faint galaxies. But is it real?
A man sits on a chair against a white backdrop, placed in front of the Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, under a clear blue sky.
53mins
Sam Kean examines how rogue archaeologists are recreating the sounds, tastes, smells, and practices of the ancient past.
Voyager
No human has ever left the Solar System, and only six already-launched spacecraft will ever exit it. Will Voyager 1 remain the most distant?
A robotic hand places a black stone on a Go board, surrounded by scattered black and white stones.
Philosopher Sven Nyholm on reclaiming achievement from the machines.
A simple illustration of a house with two windows featuring cartoon eyes, set against a black background with minimal greenery—perfect for fans of that "wired on Wall Street" aesthetic.
In this excerpt from Wired on Wall Street, Tom Hardin (aka "Tipper X") shares how he began gathering intelligence on insider trading for the FBI.
A woman in traditional attire stands among a group of people, next to maps showing global data with colored grids and overlays.
A growing movement shows that protecting the world’s forests — and the people who have safeguarded them for centuries — is one of the most powerful, and overlooked, tools in the fight against climate change.
Skoll Foundation