Perspectives Article
The Charisma of the Wild Mushroom
Shiho Satsuka investigates the cultural and ecological significance of the matsutake mushroom in Japan.
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Perspectives Article
Environmental History and Other Histories
David Blackbourn highlights how environmental history reflects broader shifts in the historical discipline, such as the renewed focus on place, materiality, and “big history.”
Multimedia | journal article
“Thank God for the Coal Rollers”
Historian Timothy LeCain is interested in the bridge between humans and materiality. Last year, while driving his SUV home through the mountains of Montana, a large truck pulled in front of him and released a cloud of dense, noxious smoke. Like many cyclists, hybrid car drivers, and “No Kings” protestors, LeCain had been “coal rolled.” His tongue-in-cheek essay, “Thank God for the Coal Rollers,” explores the practice’s culture, intended victims, and even the unintended good it might enact.
Multimedia | journal article
“Mapped Futures, Vanishing Places: On Inheritance at the Water’s Edge”
In “Mapped Futures, Vanishing Places,” literary scholar Kumiko Kiuchi portrays the simple act of walking as an opportunity to inherit shared memory. Her writing takes off from Tokyo’s artificial waterfront into a creative space stretching from past generations into imagined futures, reminding us to remain “attentive to what cannot be fully possessed or understood.”