As news feeds swarm with cat videos, it’s hard to imagine our digital lives without memes. But believe it or not, memes aren’t a recent cultural phenomenon. In fact, the word “meme” itself is rooted ...

In 1768, all it cost to change history was £200. That’s what two Scottish publishers paid William Smellie—son of a stonemason and master printer—to squeeze the sum-total of human knowledge into a ...