What We’re Reading 2024
It’s become a tradition: the writers and editors at JSTOR Daily share our thoughts on this year's pleasure reading.
Black Women Were Also Lynched
A case study of the 1912 lynching of Mary Jackson in Harrison County, Texas, provides insight into the contradictory culture of racial violence.
Dubious Medicine on the Texas Frontier
If you got sick in the Texas frontier area in the decades before the Civil War, your options were all pretty bad.
Thomas Jefferson’s Gourmand Explorers
Jefferson’s government organized several western expeditions. Some carried luxurious supplies of food, some enjoyed local hospitality, and some nearly starved to death.
The Drama of Point d’Alençon Needle Lace
In its heyday, lace was beautiful, expensive, and handmade. Naturally, lace smuggling became the stuff of legend.
The Plan to Sell Texas to Great Britain
Stephen Pearl Andrews, a lawyer, Houston socialite, and abolitionist, concocted a plan to free Texas' slaves—with a hint of treason.
The Long-Lost Locust
The 1874 locust swarm was estimated to be twice the square mileage of the state of Colorado. Why don't locusts swarm anymore?
When Mexico Was Flooded By Immigrants
In the early nineteenth-century, Mexico had a problem with American immigrants.
The Story of Juneteenth
The Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863. It took over two years for the news to reach some enslaved people.
An End to All Hell: 150th Anniversary of the Civil War’s End
The 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War.