Filter by:

Filter by published date

Viewing 121–150 of 397 results. Go to first page

The Firsts

The children who desegregated America.
A nose smelling.

What Smells Can Teach Us About History

How we perceive the senses changes in different historical, political, and cultural contexts. Sensory historians ask what people smelled, touched and tasted.
Baseball players congratulate each other after a game.

The Black Gap in Baseball

Hall of Famers Reggie Jackson, Dave Winfield, Andre Dawson and Derek Jeter sit down to discuss the Black gap in baseball.

The Mod Squad, Kojak, Real-Life Cops, and Me

What I relearned (about well-meaning liberalism, race, my late father, and my young gay self) rewatching the TV cop shows of my 1970s youth.
Overhead image of suburban houses from Levittown, Pennsylvania

The Origins of Sprawl

On William Gibson, Sonic Youth, and the genesis of the American suburb.

The Forever War Over War Literature

A post-9/11 veteran novelist explores a post-Vietnam literary soiree gone bad, and finds timeless lessons about a contentious and still-evolving genre.
Black watercolor painting of trees and grasses.

The Pain of the KKK Joke

There are always three violences. The first is the violence itself.
1975 digital camera prototype

How the Digital Camera Transformed Our Concept of History

We’re capturing the mundane as well as the memorable.
Drawing of a boy and girl holding their hands behind their heads.

The Scars of Being Policed While Black

From unjustified stops of Black teenagers to a device to torment people in custody, racist police brutality runs deep.
An image of Columbus, Ohio's statue of Christopher Columbus.

The Vanishing Monuments of Columbus, Ohio

Last week, the mayor announced that the city’s most prominent statue of Christopher Columbus would be removed “as soon as possible.”

Growing Up with Juneteenth

How a Texan holiday became a national tradition.
Painting of hand-to-hand combat between British Soldiers and American coloniststs.

Who Said, "Don't Fire Till You See the Whites of Their Eyes"?

Israel Putnam? William Prescott? British officers? Was the phrase even uttered at the Battle of Bunker Hill at all?
A grilled cheese sandwich.

A Brief History of Comfort Food

Our newest culinary trend is also our oldest.

Why Nostalgia Is Our New Normal

For hundreds of years, doctors thought nostalgia was a disease. Now, it's a name for our modern condition.

My Grandfather Participated in One of America’s Deadliest Racial Conflicts

J. Chester Johnson on the Elaine Race Massacre of 1919.

Death Can’t Take the Stories Our Elders Pass On

The pandemic doesn’t just threaten our loved ones, but knowledge of our past — so Nelson George went and found his.
A crowd with communist and unemployment relief signs listens to a woman making a speech.

What Endures of the Romance of American Communism

Many of the Communists who felt destined for a life of radicalism experienced their lives as irradiated by a kind of expressiveness that made them feel centered.
Fishing boats an debris deposited in an Alaska village by the earthquake.

At the Very Beginning of the Great Alaska Earthquake

People’s stories described a sluggish process of discovery: you had to discover the earthquake, even though it had already been shaking you for what felt like a very long time.

You Are Not Safe in Science; You Are Not Safe in History

“I ask: what’s been left out of the historical record of my South and my nation? What is the danger in not knowing?”

The School Shooting That Austin Forgot

In 1978, an eighth grader from a prominent Austin family killed his teacher. His classmates are still haunted by what happened that terrible day and after.

Birmingham’s ‘Fifth Girl’

Sarah Collins Rudolph survived the 1963 church bombing that killed her sister and three other girls. She's still waiting on restitution and an apology.
Spoonfuls of different types of sugar: white and brown, granulated and cubed.

Corn, Coke, and Convenience Food

How high-fructose corn syrup became an American staple.

The Man Behind the Counter

When four black men staged at sit-in at a Greensboro Woolworth's 40 years ago, Charles Bess was the busboy.
A team photo of the 1966 Ohio State Penitentiary Hurricanes from a newspaper.

Game Day at the Ohio Pen

Remembering the Ohio State Penitentiary Hurricanes—and the day my father played against them in 1965.

“They Like That Soft Bread”

In Knoxville, Tennessee, folks love sandwiches from a Fresh-O-Matic steamer like they love their grandmas.
People standing on the sidewalk and walking by Rick Allmen’s Café Bizarre on Third Street, November 11, 1959. Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images.

Wanna-Beats: In 1959, Café Bizarre Gave Straights an Entree Into Beatnik Culture

“At the remove of time, it’s really hard to tell the difference between beat and beatsploitation.”

All Good Things Must Begin

On the self-preservation, testimonies, and solace found in the diaries of black women writers.
A microphone surrounded by multiple pairs of eyes against a brick background.

Cut Me Loose

A personal account of how one young woman travels to South Carolina in search of her family history and freedom narrative.

My Friend Mister Rogers

I first met him 21 years ago, and now our relationship is the subject of a new movie. He’s never been more revered—or more misunderstood.
Black girls exiting a school building accompanied by U.S. Marshalls.

First Day of School—1960, New Orleans

Leona Tate thought it must be Mardi Gras. Gail thought they were going to kill her.

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person