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A drawing of a moose skeleton
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America, Where the Dogs Don't Bark and the Birds Don't Sing

The Comte de Buffon's thirty-six volume Natural History claimed that America was a land of degeneracy. That enraged Thomas Jefferson.
by Lee Dugatkin, Matthew Wills via JSTOR Daily on November 27, 2019
Union members and civil rights activists in Georgia protest Shell's business with apartheid South Africa.

Galvanizing the American Public, ANC and Anti-Apartheid

How the ANC went from an organization whose role in the struggle was hotly debated, to being widely hailed as the heir to the international anti-apartheid movement.
by Jessica Ann Levy via Black Perspectives on April 24, 2024
President Kennedy hands Senator Estes Kefauver the pen he used to sign a bill.

The Greatest Show of Them All

How a New Deal senator’s anti-monopoly investigations changed American business.
by Jill Priluck via Lapham’s Quarterly on April 8, 2019
An American flag themed tapestry.

Do American Family Names Make Sense?

What's in a name? According to the "Dictionary of American Family Names," it depends.
by Peter McClure via OUPblog on April 12, 2024
Postal stamp featuring Benjamin Franklin.

Why We Still Use Postage Stamps

The enduring necessity (and importance) of a nearly 200-year-old technology.
by Andrea Valdez via The Atlantic on April 28, 2024
Image of Preston Brooks pummeling Charles Sumner with a cane in 1856 and a Trump supporter on January 6th, 2021.

The Illiberalism at America’s Core

A new history argues that illiberalism is not a backlash but a central feature from the founding to today.
by Julian E. Zelizer via The New Republic on May 2, 2024
Illustration of a man typing on his laptop on a rollercoaster ride.

Work Sucks. What Could Salvage It?

New books examine the place of work in our lives—and how people throughout history have tried to change it.
by Erik Baker via The New Yorker on May 1, 2024
Deb Haaland.

Deb Haaland Confronts the History of the Federal Agency She Leads

As the first Native American Cabinet member, the Secretary of the Interior has made it part of her job to address the travesties of the past.
by Casey N. Cep via The New Yorker on April 29, 2024
Illustration of Nancy and the first edition of the Emancipator.

He Published the First Abolitionist Newspaper in America. He Was Also an Enslaver.

When "The Emancipator" was first published in 1820, its original owner had to answer for why he owned Nancy and her five children.
by Anne G'Fellers-Mason via The Emancipator on April 30, 2024
A large crowd listening to Harry Truman give a speech on a train.

Harry Truman's Train Ride

A whistle-stop train tour, and some plain speaking spur Harry Truman's come from behind win in 1948 over Thomas Dewey.
by Michael Liss via 3 Quarks Daily on March 25, 2024
The Gateway Arch in St. Louis.
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Walt Disney Presents Manifest Destiny

On the St. Louis theme park that never made it past the drawing board.
by Devin Thomas O’Shea via HNN on April 30, 2024
Police beat protesters at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

The Plot to Wreck the Democratic Convention

May not amount to much, actually. Chicago 2024 is not Chicago 1968.
by David Frum via The Atlantic on April 29, 2024
Police arresting a protestor at U.T.-Austin.

College Administrators are Falling Into a Tried and True Trap Laid by the Right

Throughout the 1960s and 70s, conservative activists led a counterattack against campus demonstrators by demanding action from college presidents, courts, and police.
by Lauren Lassabe Shepherd via The Conversation on April 26, 2024
bags of money

Survival of the Wealthiest: Joseph E. Stiglitz on the Dangerous Failures of Neoliberalism

In which “the intellectual handmaidens of the capitalists” are taken to task.
by Joseph Stiglitz via Literary Hub on April 24, 2024
Joe Biden, with a nervous expression, campaigning in Wisconsin.
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How Trump Captured the Rust Belt—And What Democrats Can Do

History not only explains how the industrial Midwest became Trump country, but also how the area's politics may shift again.
by Stephanie Ternullo via Made by History on April 2, 2024
Mark Rudd speaking to protesters at Columbia University in 1968.

1968 Columbia Protest Leader Mark Rudd: These Kids Are ‘Smarter’

Mark Rudd says a lot has changed in half a century, but not the reason college kids paralyze a campus.
by Michael Daly via The Daily Beast on April 30, 2024
An activist holding a placard that says Stop The War On Women during the protest in Los Angeles in 2019.
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History Shows Abortion Bans Are a War on Poor Women

While some liberals decry abortion bans as a war on women, history reveals that this charge distorts the reality of their impact.
by R. E. Fulton via Made by History on April 15, 2024
A drawing of a hedgehog in Buffon's Natural History.

Waking From the Dream of Total Knowledge

Considering how relationships of cooperation and perhaps even solidarity might be forged between human beings and animals.
by Daniel Kraft via The Hedgehog Review on April 15, 2024
Posters for Beyonce's "Cowboy Carter" album.
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History Explains the Backlash to Beyoncé's 'Cowboy Carter'

Black cowboys made up as much as a quarter of working ranch hands during late 19th century. That legacy has been obscured.
by Elyssa Ford, Rebecca Scofield via Made by History on April 12, 2024
Ronald Reagan campaigns in Houston ahead of the Republican Convention in 1976.
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How Abortion Took Over the Republican Party

Ronald Reagan proved instrumental to Southerners bringing their cultural conservatism to center stage for the Republican Party.
by Jonathan Bartho via Made by History on April 12, 2024
Lincoln being sworn in by Chief Justice Taney.

We Are Already Defying the Supreme Court

The risks of calling on politicians to push back against the court must be weighed against the present reality of a malign judicial dictatorship.
by Samuel Moyn, Ryan D. Doerfler via Dissent on April 16, 2024
Basketball players taking a knee on the court and wearing "Black Lives Matter" shirts.
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How the NBA Learned to Embrace Activism

A changing NBA fan base drove the league toward an embrace of Black culture, and social justice politics.
by Adam Criblez via Made by History on April 19, 2024
An illustration of a tube of cream; reads "Hakka Cream Catarrh, Hay Fever, Head Colds, etc.)

Hay Fever

The nuisance of a new season.
by Erika Mills via Circulating Now on April 5, 2024
Volunteers at Big Creek Missions in Leslie County, Kentucky

Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood

I’ve been going back to eastern Kentucky for over a decade. Since 2016, something there has changed.
by Bradley Devlin via The American Conservative on April 22, 2024
Nutrition Facts labels
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What ‘Nutrition Facts’ Labels Leave Out

The history of the Nutrition Facts label exposes the power — and limitations — of such transparency.
by Xaq Frohlich via Made by History on April 11, 2024
Cover of "The Black Tax"

Tax History Matters: A Q&A with the Author of ‘The Black Tax’

The history of the property tax system and its structural defects that have led to widespread discrimination against Black Americans.
by Andrew W. Kahrl, Brakeyshia Samms via Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy on April 24, 2024
Sign reading "Welcome to the People's University for Palestine" at Harvard protest encampment

The Real Scandal of Campus Protest

It’s not that there has been too much student protest. It’s that there has not been much, much more of it.
by Erik Baker via Boston Review on April 25, 2024
Student protesters at Columbia University in 1968.

“The Whole World Is Watching”: An Oral History of the 1968 Columbia Uprising

In April 1968, students took over campus buildings in an uprising that caught the world’s attention. Fifty years later, they reflect on what went right and what went wrong.
by George Pataki, Mark Rudd, Nancy Biberman, Juan González, Hilton Obenzinger, Paul Auster, Clara Bingham, Robert Friedman, Eleanor Stein, Stuart Gedal, Arnim Johnson, Brian Flanagan, Raymond Brown, Karla Spurlock-Evans, Tom Hurwitz, James Branch, Michelle Patrick, Stephan Salisbury, Vaud Massarsky, Michael Rosenthal, Richard Eagan, Mike Reynolds, Gary Beamer via The Hive on March 26, 2018
Keith Haring standing shirtless in front of one of his paintings.

Angels with Dirty Faces

How Keith Haring got his halo.
by Zack Hatfield via Bookforum on April 12, 2024
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No Place to Make a Vote of Thanks

On the long tradition of Black third-party activism.
by Marc Blanc via HNN on April 23, 2024

“All the Consent That’s Fit to Manufacture”

An interrogation of The New York Times’ archive reveals a sordid record of support for American wars, right-wing dictatorships and U.S.-backed regime-change.
by Writers Against the War on Gaza via The New York War Crimes on November 29, 2023
People on a porch in Fort Verde, Arizona, 1886.

Arizona’s 1864 Abortion Law Was Made in a Women’s Rights Desert – Here’s What Life Was Like Then

Abortions happened in Arizona, despite a near-complete abortion ban enacted in 1864. But people also faced penalties for them, including a female doctor who went to prison.
by Calvin Schermerhorn via The Conversation on April 25, 2024
Girls and boys in a 19th century classroom.
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The End of Men, in 1870

In 1790, U.S. men were about twice as likely as U.S. women to be literate. But by 1870, girls were surpassing boys in public schools.
by Livia Gershon, David Tyack, Elizabeth Hansot via JSTOR Daily on December 2, 2019
Photograph of a children's choir singing within the outlines of the United States.

How “Fifty Nifty United States” Became One of the Greatest Mnemonic Devices of All Time

How you, your friends, and Lin-Manuel Miranda all learned this catchy, state-naming tune.
by L. V. Anderson via Slate on November 30, 2015
Helen Keller, circa 1954.

Did Helen Keller Really “Do All That”?

A troubling TikTok conspiracy theory questions whether Keller was “real.”
by Rebecca Onion via Slate on February 26, 2021
Tucker Carlson wearing a t-shirt with a photograph of Abraham Lincoln on it.

The Right May Be Giving Up the “Lost Cause,” but What’s Next Could Be Worse

The GOP’s new embrace of Lincoln, emancipation, and Juneteenth is no sign of progress.
by Rebecca Onion, Matthew Karp via Slate on June 25, 2021
Search bar for "Green's Dictionary of Slang; Five hundred years of the vulgar tongue"

Green’s Dictionary of Slang

A web dictionary devoted to historical English slang—five hundred years of the vulgar tongue.
by Jonathon Green on October 12, 2016
U.S. presidential seal

Founding-Era History Doesn’t Support Trump’s Immunity Claim

Historians Rosemarie Zagarri and Holly Brewer explain the anti-monarchical origins of the Constitution and the presidency.
by Rosemarie Zagarri, Holly Brewer via Brennan Center For Justice on February 21, 2024
The Man of Signs page of Young's 1848 almanac.

Reading the Man of Signs, or, Farming in the Moon

What did the signs and the phases of the moon mean to moon farmers in the 1840s?
by Emily Pawley via Commonplace on July 1, 2014
A historical marker outside Fendall Hall, a plantation.

Historical Markers Are Everywhere In America. Some Get History Wrong.

The nation's historical markers delight, distort and, sometimes, just get the story wrong.
by Laura Sullivan, Nick McMillan via NPR on April 21, 2024
The island of Molokai, where the Ball Method successfully treated leprosy sufferers.

A Young Black Scientist Discovered a Pivotal Leprosy Treatment in the 1920s

Historians are working to shine a light on Alice Ball’s legacy and contributions to an early treatment of a dangerous and stigmatizing disease.
by Mark M. Lambert via The Conversation on April 12, 2024
Book cover of "Cold War Country" by Joseph M. Thompson.

Big Government Country

Connie B. Gay and the roots of country music militarization.
by Brock Schnoke via UNC Press Blog on April 11, 2024
A line of prisoners picking cotton in Huntsville, Texas.

The Oil Boom’s Roots in East Texas Cotton Farming

Oil’s rise was as dependent on the old as much as the new. The industry also benefited from changes in agriculture.
by Scot McFarlane via Texas Monthly on November 1, 2017
Book cover of Counterrevolution by Melinda Cooper.

A Tax Haven in a Heartless World: On Melinda Cooper’s “Counterrevolution”

Why should taxpayers fund schools that violate their own values, the Moms for Liberty wonder? A new book traces how this kind of thinking about public spending came to be.
by Sarah Brouillette via Los Angeles Review of Books on April 15, 2024
Richard Slotkin.

“A Theory of America”: Mythmaking with Richard Slotkin

"I was always working on a theory of America."
by Kathleen Belew, Richard S. Slotkin via Public Books on April 19, 2024
Solidarity book cover and photos of authors Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor.

Talking “Solidarity” With Astra Taylor and Leah Hunt-Hendrix

A conversation with the activists and writers about their wide-ranging history of the politics of the common good and togetherness.
by Astra Taylor, Leah Hunt-Hendrix, Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins via The Nation on April 23, 2024
Blue-print style sketch of a suburban home, with sidewalk, driveway, and garage

How the Suburbs Became a Trap

Neighborhoods that once promised prosperity now offer crumbling infrastructure, aged housing stock, and social animus.
by Caitlin Zaloom via The New Republic on April 18, 2024
At nighttime, the levels inside the Milton S. Eisenhower Library light up the windows, showing stacks of books and the silhouettes of students working at tables and lounging at chairs, from A Level to B Level and M Level at the top, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, 1965.

The Education Factory

By looking at the labor history of academia, you can see the roots of a crisis in higher education that has been decades in the making.
by Erik Baker via The Nation on April 22, 2024
Binary information.

A Brief History of Character Codes

Character codes have been evolving through multiple systems over multiple centuries, this is the story.
by Steven J. Searle via TRON Web on August 6, 2004
Oneida Community members outside their mansion house, ca. 1865-1875.
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When We Say “Share Everything,” We Mean Everything

On the Oneida Community, a radical religious organization practicing “Bible communism,” and eventually, manufacturing silverware.
via BackStory on November 17, 2016
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