Augustine Sedgewick on his discovery of Henry David Thoreau’s connection to slavery

Susannah Gibson opens the parlor doors on 18th-century feminism

Bill Schutt chomps through millennia to share the story of our pearly whites

Gregory P. Downs on the late Anthony E. Kaye’s groundbreaking history of Nat Turner

Joshua Prager on a forgotten Olympic gymnast whose 1904 record still hasn’t been beaten

Olivia Laing on the dark histories and utopian dreams of the flower bed

Vicki Valosik gets submerged in the history of synchronized swimming

Jay Owens on the tiny particles that float through our lives

Tiffany Tsao on translating a beguiling Indonesian short-story collection