Alexis Coe’s past essays on history for The Toast (newly christened "Archival Mix") can be found here. Most recently: Rita Levi-Montalcini: Kicking Ass and Doing Science. This, and all subsequent editions of Alexis’ columnn (!) are brought to you courtesy of a sweet and generous sponsor who wishes to be known as The Ghost of Jane Addams.

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"My wife’s first master was her father, and her mother his slave, and…

The story of how my family acquired Old World recipes for Ashkenazi cuisine is a rape story – but it takes a bit of digging to figure that out. They don’t talk about it. The ones who are left alive to tell it, anyway, the old ones. And we, the young ones, learned long ago to stop asking. The pursing and hardening of lips that were wide open with laughter only moments before, the sudden…