Modern life is often viewed as easier than life in the Middle Ages, but some comparisons reveal surprising similarities and ...

Atlas Obscura on Slate is a blog about the world’s hidden wonders. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter. The dream of the common person’s utopia was more than a little bit different during ...

Winter in a peasant village, painted by the Limbourg brothers and published in the medieval illuminated manuscript ‘Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry.’ Pierce Archive LLC/Buyenlarge via Getty Images ...

Life for the medieval peasant was certainly no picnic. His life was shadowed by fear of famine, disease and bursts of warfare. His diet and personal hygiene left much to be desired. But despite his ...

Growing inequality has become one of the major political and economic concerns in the world as well as in America. The growing disparity of wealth today has many parallels with the unequal societies ...

When people think of the European Middle Ages, it often brings to mind grinding poverty, superstition and darkness. But the reality of the 1,000-year period from 500 to 1500 was much more complex.

I just got out of a hot shower, and am sipping a cup of hot chocolate while I listen to music on my iPhone in my heated apartment, while I write this article on a computer that allows me instant ...