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Tarred as a “coolie race,” the Chinese were cast as a threat to free white labor. Train with fire around it and a face in the back.

America Was Eager for Chinese Immigrants. What Happened?

In the gold-rush era, ceremonial greetings swiftly gave way to bigotry and violence.
by Michael Luo via The New Yorker on August 20, 2021
Statue of Liberty, her face in shadow.

The United States Is Not “a Nation of Immigrants”

Celebrations of multiculturalism obscure the country’s settler colonial history—and the role that immigrants play in perpetuating it.
by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz via Boston Review on August 12, 2021
"Dear America" books with Black girls on the covers.

How the Dear America Series Taught Young Girls They Had a Place In History

History classes made it seem like young girls wouldn't ever change the course of the world. These books taught them that they could.
by Angela Lashbrook via Refinery29 on July 19, 2021
Ilustration of Indian American family with American symbols.

The Truth Behind Indian American Exceptionalism

Many of us are unaware of the special circumstances that eased our entry into American life—and of the bonds we share with other nonwhite groups.
by Arun Venugopal via The Atlantic on December 19, 2020

What We Lost in the Museum of Chinese in America Fire

The question remains whether spaces like MOCA will remain vibrant in a future where notions of community grow more abstract.
by Hua Hsu via The New Yorker on January 27, 2020

The Assassin Next Door

My family’s immigrant journey and James Earl Ray’s path to targeting MLK, Jr., intersected at a corner of East Hollywood.
by Hector Tobar via The New Yorker on July 22, 2019
Label for Venere brand lemons, featuring a woman wearing lemon flowers in her hair and picking the fruit.

How Sicilian Merchants in New Orleans Reinvented America’s Diet

In the 1830s, they brought lemons, commercial dynamism, and a willingness to fight elites.
by Justin Nystrom via Zócalo Public Square on June 20, 2019

‘Bad Bridgets’: The Criminal and Deviant Irish Women Convicted in America

Irish-born women were disproportionately imprisoned in America for most of the nineteenth century.
by Elaine Farrell, Leanne McCormick via The Irish Times on February 20, 2019

The Triangle Shirtwaist Memorialist

Remembering victims of one of the worst workplace disasters in American history.
by Jeremiah Moss via New York Review of Books on August 31, 2018

Field of Dreams

Migrant futboleros in greater Mexico.
by Romeo Guzman via Boom California on June 13, 2018

Piecing Together a Border’s History, One Love Letter at a Time

Finding a puzzle from the past in a family member’s basement.
by Miroslava Chávez-García via Lapham’s Quarterly on May 16, 2018

The 'Pedestrian' Who Became One of America's First Black Sports Stars

In 1880, Frank Hart wowed audiences at New York’s Madison Square Garden by walking 565 miles in six days.
by David Seideman via Atlas Obscura on April 17, 2018
Irish immigrants at Ellis Island.

Why Irish America Is Not Evergreen

Changes to US immigration rules have largely closed the door to new entries, leading inexorably to a “graying” of Irish America.
by Sadhbh Walshe via New York Review of Books on March 16, 2018
Alice Lee Hum with her mother Jean, at a laundry on 21st Ave in Astoria, Queens, c. 1951.

How Childhoods Spent in Chinese Laundries Tell the Story of America

The laundry: a place to play, grow up, and live out memories both bitter and sweet.
by Eveline Chao via Atlas Obscura on January 3, 2018
Emma Goldman.

Emma Goldman’s “Anarchism Without Adjectives”

The writings of Emma Goldman entered the public domain. Here is an introduction to Goldman's life and her particular brand of anarchism.
by Kathy Ferguson via The Public Domain Review on January 12, 2011
George W. Bush delivering a speech.

George W. Bush Lives on in Donald Trump’s Migrant Policies

The “war on terror” led to a sweeping curtailment of immigrants’ rights that swept up green card holders as well as citizens.
by Branko Marcetic via Jacobin on March 27, 2025
Illustration of kringles in a Christmas parade.

How the Kringle Became a Wisconsin Christmas Classic

Trader Joe’s stocks an aggressively American version of the Dutch pastry, turning it into a beloved holiday staple nationwide.
by Trisha Gopal via Eater on December 2, 2024
4 photographs of Josie Rudolph Thurnauer through the years 1874-1938.

Josie’s Story: From 19th-Century Sitka To Her Escape From The Holocaust

Josie Rudolph’s life, in an era of worldwide migration and colonial ambition, offers a new perspective on the familiar tale of modern Alaska’s birth.
by Tom Kizzia via Anchorage Daily News on October 28, 2024
A drawing of 10 identical women in historical cooking, but nine of them are colored green and one of them is red.

Anthony Bourdain on the Life and Legacy of a Truly Infamous Cook: Typhoid Mary

“Mary Mallon was a cook. And her story, first and foremost, is the story of a cook.”
by Anthony Bourdain via Literary Hub on October 15, 2024
Kamala Harris waving to the audience in front of American flags.

What Does Caste Have to Do With Kamala Harris?

This election year, two women of South Asian descent—Kamala Harris and Usha Vance—take center stage. What can their identities tell us about their approach?
by Tanvi Misra via Harper's Bazaar on September 26, 2024
John Thorn photographed in front of baseball memorabilia.

How Baseball’s Official Historian Dug Up the Game’s Unknown Origins

A lifelong passion for the national pastime led John Thorn to redefine the sport's relationship with statistics and reveal the truth behind its earliest days.
by Frederic J. Frommer via Smithsonian on March 28, 2024
The Doctors' House in Glendale.

Pieces of the Past at the Doctors House: Glendale, California

How one house can contain larger stories of American migration and growth, reckonings with exclusion, and the advent of new technologies.
by Katherine Hobbs via Public Books on March 21, 2024
Four typewriters including the Nazi-built Urania model.

Why the World of Typewriter Collectors Splits Down the Middle When These Machines Come Up for Sale

In this new hobby, I found so many stories.
by Mark Lawrence Schrad via Slate on March 16, 2024
Willa Cather wearing a mink shawl and a large hat in Paris

Prairie Swooner

The hardscrabble origins and unique vision of novelist Willa Cather.
by Eric Banks via Bookforum on February 6, 2024
Drawing from two perspectives of an African American man and a Jewish woman between a grocery store and a theater.

Lost Histories of Coexistence

James McBride’s new novel tells a story of solidarity between Black and Jewish communities.
by Ayana Mathis via The Atlantic on August 8, 2023
Title page of garden club cookbook.

Tahir’s Tamales: Syrian Cooking in the American South

Community cookbooks provide a perspective on the American melting pot.
by Andrew P. Haley via Perspectives on History on June 21, 2023
Vaishno Das Bagai (top right), Ramesh Chandra, Abnashi Ram, and other early South Asian immigrants, early 1920s.

United States of America vs. Vaishno Das Bagai

One-hundred years ago, the U.S. government waged a deliberate and organized campaign against South-Asian Americans.
by Erika Lee via South Asian American Digital Archive on February 19, 2023
Mexican American men standing near a mural and a low rider car in Chicago in 1987.

The Past and Future of Mexican Chicago

From the machine politicians in La Villita to the radicals in Pilsen, Mexican Chicagoans have played a central role in defining their city. 
by Juan Ignacio Mora via The Nation on January 10, 2023
Graphic novel page depicting Harlem's Black nightlife.

A Graphic Novel Rediscovers Harlem’s Glamorous Female Mob Boss

Stephanie St. Clair, who gained notoriety as a criminal entrepreneur and a fashion icon, was a powerful Black woman able to wrest control in a world run by men.
by Françoise Mouly, Genevieve Bormes, Elizabeth Colomba via The New Yorker on January 4, 2023
A portrait of Joe Hill.

Joe Hill Was Killed for Singing Labor’s Song

The labor troubadour Joe Hill was executed by a Utah firing squad for a crime he almost certainly didn’t commit.
by Cal Winslow via Jacobin on November 19, 2022
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