Benjamin Breen
Benjamin Breen is an assistant professor of history at the University of California–Santa Cruz, teaching classes on early modern Europe, the history of science and technology, and the global drug trade.
Newton’s Needle: On Scientific Self-Experimentation
It is all too easy to treat science as a platform that allows the observer to hover over the messiness of life, unobserved and untouched. But by remembering the role of the body in science, perhaps we humanize it as well.
Why 'Game of Thrones' Isn’t Medieval—and Why That Matters
Fantasy worlds are never just fantasy. They appeal to us because they refract our own histories and speak to contemporary interests.