Drawing of Patrice Lumumba with Congolese people in the background.

The Real Story Behind Patrice Lumumba’s Assassination

A new book sorts through the fate of the leader of the fight for Congolese independence.
People looking at the Tops grocery store where police are in the parking lot after a mass shooting.

Making Sense of the Racist Mass Shooting in Buffalo

An expert on the white-power movement and the “great replacement” theory puts the act of terror in context.
Statue of Robert E. Lee on his horse.

Reëxamining the Legacy of Race and Robert E. Lee

The historian Allen C. Guelzo believes that the Confederate general deserves a more compassionate reading.
Taliban soldier in front of a large group of Afghan people.

How America Failed in Afghanistan

The New Yorker staff writer Steve Coll on the humanitarian catastrophe that is now likely to engulf Afghan civilians, and how Joe Biden is shifting the blame.
Julie and Hillary Goodridge talking to reporters

Why the Marriage-Equality Movement Succeeded

The author of “The Engagement" discusses the activists, politicians, and judicial figures who were at the forefront of the battle over same-sex marriage.
A crowd of people with one person waving the Confederate flag

Learning from the Failure of Reconstruction

The storming of the Capitol was an expression of the antidemocratic strands in American history.
President Trump in car

Trump’s Illness and the History of Presidential Health

Are White House doctors keeping the public adequately informed about President Trump’s battle with COVID-19?

How to Confront a Racist National History

Susan Neiman, a philosopher who studies Germany’s confrontation with its Nazi past, examines how the United States can remember slavery and segregation.

How Racism Is Shaping the Coronavirus Pandemic

For hundreds of years, false theories of “innate difference and deficit in black bodies” have shaped American responses to disease.
Virus seen through a microscope.

How Pandemics Change History

The historian Frank M. Snowden discusses the politics of restricting travel during epidemics and more.
Demonstrators with signs reading "Impeach Nixon" march toward the U.S. Capitol.

How Watergate Set the Stage for the Trump Impeachment Inquiry

The Nixon impeachment proceedings and their parallels with the Trump-Ukraine scandal.
Political cartoon about Reconstruction.

The Buried Promise of the Reconstruction Amendments

The historical context of the amendments passed in the wake of the Civil War, Eric Foner argues, are widely misunderstood.

How a Historian Uncovered Ronald Reagan’s Racist Remarks to Richard Nixon

In a taped call with Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan described the African delegates to the United Nations in luridly racist terms.
Immigrant women at Ellis Island.

A Journalist on How Anti-Immigrant Fervor Built in the Early Twentieth Century

A century ago, the invocation of science was key to making Americans believe that newcomers were inferior.

The Author of a New Book About Andrew Johnson on the Right Reasons to Impeach a President

Johnson’s impeachment was driven by his refusal to rid the country of the lingering effects of slavery.
A private security guard throws a soccer ball back inside the Tornillo detention camp for migrant teens in Tornillo, Texas, Dec. 13, 2018.

A Historian on How Trump’s Wall Rhetoric Changes Lives in Mexico

The U.S. did not always find it necessary to lock up people seeking asylum.
Map of the arms trade.

The Roots of America’s Gun Culture

How 18th-century British arms sales, the slave trade, and the Revolutionary War contributed to the mess we have today.
Women's march in front of the U.S. Capitol.

How Second-Wave Feminism Inexplicably Became a Villain in the #MeToo Debate

Talking sexism, ageism, and progress with Katha Pollitt.