Family

The past really is a foreign country, as historian Jonathan Ablard finds when piecing together the turbulent history of his ancestors in the West and Midwest.

A history of wealth, enterprise, and family dysfunction.

On the other side of the hardened activist was a man who stirred his coffee with his daughter's finger and told her it made it sweet.

Repelled by American racism, thousands of free people of color bounced between New Orleans and Haiti in the 19th century.

Reformers linked tobacco use to a deterioration of social and familial values, a habit that disrupted the sanctity of the home.

Reflections on the literary legacy of a timeless American novel.

Examining the tumultuous bond between the two brothers.

The Black Panthers shook America before the party was gutted by the government. Their children paid a steep price, but also emerged with unassailable pride.

During World War II, the law justified the imprisonment of thousands like Heidi Gurcke Donald.

Martha S. Jones’ new memoir draws on genealogical research and memories shared by relatives.

Rich Benjamin’s new book reveals a shared spirit between the world’s first Black republic and the United States.

Enslaved families were regularly separated​. A new history chronicles the tenacious efforts of the emancipated to be reunited​ with their loved ones.

A historian explores his own family's history to understand the African-American community’s internal pigmentocracy and the absurdity of racial binaries.

Confederates kidnapped free Black people to sell into slavery. After the war, two women sought help from high places to track down their lost loved ones.

A new book reveals the jazz musician’s mother and sister were arrested several times for prostitution in New Orleans.

Why is America’s near-mythic dynasty so nasty up close?

The true cost of the immigration policy can be measured in the generations of Chinese Americans who were never born.

The 1946 elections were a disaster for Democrats—and the reason I was born.

A new book celebrates an American political dynasty dedicated to public service. Why have they been forgotten?

In North Carolina, a Black farmer purchased the plantation where his ancestors were enslaved—and is reclaiming his family’s story and the soil beneath his feet.

Trump is often described as unprecedented, but in winning a non-consecutive second term, he has a significant antecedent: Grover Cleveland.

The story of suffragist Matilda Gage, the woman behind the curtain whose life story captivated her son-in-law L. Frank Baum as he wrote his classic novel.

In Wilson’s chivalric framework, women were required to be submissive precisely so that men could protect the weaker sex.

Contrary to both far right and mainstream center-left, there’s no epidemic of chosen childlessness.

Criticisms of women without biological children define motherhood too narrowly, as history reveals the many forms of motherhood.

A conversation with historian Zachary Schrag and his father Philip Schrag about their multi-generational encounters with nuclear threats.

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?

A new book charts the history of pet cemeteries and honors the universal experience of grieving an animal companion.

The candidate's potential ties to an Irish slave owner invite us to reexamine Ireland’s multilayered historical identity.

Justin B. Wymer knows a snake when he sees one.