History & Society

History & Society

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

oldest trees
1859's Carrington event gave us a preview of how catastrophic the Sun could be for humanity. But it could get even worse than we imagined.
finite or infinite
As far as we can tell, there's no limit to how far it goes on; only a limit to how far we can see. Could the Universe truly be infinite?
Four circles, each divided into a colored three-quarters segment and a beige one-quarter segment, are arranged in a 2x2 grid on a dark blue background.
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Ferris Bueller's advice to pause and observe life is more relevant than ever in our fast-paced digital age, where Amy Herman emphasizes the importance of not only reflection but also enhancing our perception skills.
Impressionist painting of a young woman in a blue dress sitting on grass and reading a letter, with soft, colorful brushstrokes.
Books to expand your perspective on history, philosophy, space exploration, and more this year.
Book cover of “The Savage Landscape: How We Made the Wilderness” by Cal Flyn, featuring a dramatic mountain range beneath a cloudy sky and a sweeping valley below, perfectly capturing the untamed spirit of the savage landscape.
From Viking tales to modern anthropology, the idea of the "savage" has shaped how outsiders viewed Indigenous societies — and justified attempts to dominate them.
Scientists are livid over the OSTP director's official report to the President. Will it lead to a new golden age for US science, or end it?
The grid features 15 images of distant galaxies, each labeled with identifiers and redshift values from z=4.75 to z=8.92. Captured by JWST, these celestial wonders include intriguing little red dots scattered across the vast cosmos.
200 years ago, we hardly knew anything about our Universe on cosmic scales. Today, there's so much that we know. Here's how we arrived.
A literary map of the United States showing states, major cities, and regions, each labeled with notable authors and literary references from those areas.
From Stephen King’s Maine to Steinbeck’s California, Big Think's “A Literary Map of the United States” charts the stories that changed how we see a nation.
A split image: left side shows an empty bench and rocking chair by a lake, evoking a sense of nostalgia; right side shows a person in a white shirt walking outdoors, partially obscured by a torn-paper effect.
The philosopher Svetlana Boym argues that "nostos" encourages people to reject the world as it is and seek to return to a better time — real or imagined.
Map showing North Korea and South Korea, demilitarized zone, military demarcation line, and territory sizes in square kilometers, with major cities labeled in both countries.
Neither a victory nor a defeat, the Korean War lingers in a stalemate that remains unresolved.
A squirrel sits on a rock facing a standing bear in a forest setting, both animals appearing to observe each other closely.
People are almost always different to how we imagine them
universe bulk volume brane dimension
Mathematics is our language for quantitatively describing reality, but it can also take us to worlds that never were. Physics needs more.
Two people at a protest hold signs reading "no vaccine passports" and "STOP COVID JABS FOR CHILDREN," with others standing nearby and flags visible in the background.
Astrophysicist Adam Frank used to think the consequences of rejecting science would play out on the individual level. He's since changed his mind.
Book cover of "Data Empire" by Roopika Risam, featuring a geometric green crown design that visually echoes the book’s exploration of how data empires wield the power of information to organize, control, and dominate.
Today's surveillance economy is not inevitable. Data can become a public resource instead of a tool of control.
A man in a dark suit stands in front of a large sign that reads "SPIELBERG DISCLOSURE DAY" on a modern, metallic backdrop.
The movie gestures at one of humanity's biggest questions yet chooses to look away, writes Big Think producer Clark Frankel.
observable universe size
For all we know, the cosmos could truly be infinite in scale. But the observable part of our Universe? It's finite, and its size is known.
A person stands in front of two dome-shaped adobe houses, embracing homesteading life in Cochise County, with mountains rising in the background under a clear sky.
A writer’s search for an affordable home leads to the desert — and a community building a different kind of American dream.
A white van with its side door open is parked on desert ground next to a Joshua tree, embodying the spirit of van life, with mountains in the background under a clear blue sky.
I’ve lived in a converted van for six years. The freedom is real — but so are the trade-offs people rarely talk about.
People sit around a campfire next to a covered wagon at dusk, some opting out of the warmth to tend cooking supplies on the ground, while the softly illuminated wagon glows in the evening light.
From Amish Country to Slab City, these are the places where Americans reject the mainstream.
A collage featuring vintage papers, a sketch of Bartleby seated, a window frame, and colored circles on a dark background.
The ambiguity of Bartleby shows that opting out can be a form of resistance, retreat, or something harder to judge.