Civilization is back. But it is no longer the preserve of “Renaissance man” or of “the West,” or even of literate societies. Civilization is a way of talking about human history on the largest scale. From the cave paintings of Lascaux to the latest MoMA exhibition, it binds human history together.

Compared with the sophisticated technology Russia employed to meddle in the 2016 U.S. election, the Soviet propaganda in Brutal Bloc Postcards, published by FUEL Design and Publishing, seems downright quaint. Many of these postcards, published by governments of the U.S.S.R. between the 1960s and 1980s, depict the bland, 1960s five-story concrete-paneled apartments known as “khrushchyovka” as if to say, “Look at the modern wonder of collective worker housing!”

Slavery still exists and it happens in plain sight.

When Jews fled Spain during the Inquisition, they carried their language with them. Today, Ladino reflects the trajectories of the Sephardic Jewish diaspora, but can it survive?

Junchang Lü was is one of the most important dinosaur researchers of the past half century

A painstaking investigation of Europe’s cave art has revealed 32 shapes and lines that crop up again and again and could be the world’s oldest code

Stone Mountain has been called “a blight” upon the state of Georgia. But to others it is a key part of Southern heritage.

For Ars staffers, IRC led to love, marriage, and trolling.

An exquisitely preserved skeleton of a woman dubbed the 'Grand Lady' has been discovered in a water-filled coffin in China.

For nearly two millennia, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius has served as a stark reminder that nature is capable of some serious violence.

Donald Trump has said quite a few bizarre things. He now thinks he knows something about American history. As usual, he’s delusional.

Lee Soo-keun escaped to South Korea from the North through a hail of bullets in 1967, only to be hanged as a spy two years later. Almost 50 years later, his name has been cleared.

In Russia’s arctic wilderness, the remnants of one of the Soviet Union’s most tragic gulag projects now lies largely forgotten.

Newly declassified documents show why the Americans and the Soviets came so close to war in 1973.

When cities lack the paths pedestrians need, people vote with their feet

Istanbul’s Haci Bekir sweet shop has been selling Turkish delight for two centuries, largely thanks to the business savvy of generations of women.

A scent with few natural analogues, orris is exceedingly rare; the fact that people continue to seek out this fragrance despite its high cost speaks to its enduring appeal.

The experiment of a 'continuous week' was shift work, on a colossal scale. And it failed.

For years, Kathleen McLaughlin smuggled American plasma every time she entered China, home to the world’s largest and deadliest blood debacle. She had no other choice

The wonders of modern medicine and nutrition make it easy to believe we enjoy longer lives than at any time in human history, but we may not be that special after all.

Humans did not accelerate the decline of the 'Green Sahara' and may have managed to hold back the onset of the Sahara desert by around 500 years, according to new research led by UCL.

"It's not every day that one steps on a sword in the lake!" Mikael Nordström from Jönköpings Läns Museum said when explaining the significance of the find. But that's exactly what happened to Saga Vanecek, who found the relic at the Vidöstern lake in Tånnö, Småland earlier this summer. "I was outside in the water, throwing sticks and stones and stuff to see how far they skip, and then I found some kind of stick," Saga told The Local.

What are we to make of the deathbed confession of the political operative Lee Atwater, newly revealed, that he staged the events that brought down the Democratic candidate in 1987?

In September 1868, Southern white Democrats hunted down around 200 African-Americans in an effort to suppress voter turnout

How instant noodles, now 60 years old, went from a shed in Japan to global success.

By the onset of the 1990s one thing was clear, the future was digital. Analog format sales for music were down, CD sales were up; and it was evident, at least in the US, that people were bringing more computing devices into their homes. At the beginning of the decade, roughly 1 in 3 American households had a Nintendo Entertainment System in them, according to this Good Morning America segment.

Have you ever been three hours late to your own wedding because you’re too busy planning an invasion of Italy? If so, you and Napoleon Bonaparte have something in common. For one of the supposed greatest love stories in history, Napoleon and Joséphine’s marriage didn’t begin too well. It didn’t end well, either. And not …

92-year-old Wren tells us about life cracking German codes

Right-wing billionaire Richard DeVos, who died at ninety-two last week, tried to cover up his life’s record — pioneering the cruel pyramid scheme Amway, attacking organized labor, fighting LGBTQ equality — with philanthropy. But he should be remembered as a bigoted con artist.

This unique film brings into high definition the human face of the First World War as part of a special London Film Festival presentation alongside a live Q&A with director Peter Jackson hosted by Mark Kermode. Using state of the art technology to restore original archival footage which is more than a 100-years old, Jackson brings to life the people who can best tell this story: the men who were there. Driven by a personal interest in the First World War, Jackson set out to bring to life the day-to-day experience of its soldiers.

The world's oldest active torrent file turned fifteen-years-old this week, a remarkable achievement. TorrentFreak catches up with the creator of "The Fanimatrix" torrent file, who saw BitTorrent as the only affordable option to share the Matrix fan film with the world.

In 'Barracoon,' Zora Neale Hurston challenges the American public’s narrow view of the African continent, the transatlantic slave trade, and the diasporic cultures that came as a result of it.