Memory

As a versatile but complex hero, King led a life open to interpretation by politicians and activists of all types who fiercely debated his legacy.

How political misappropriations of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy fuel right-wing movements.

Over the past year, two prominent historians have invited readers to rethink the master narrative of US history.

In the 1960s and ’70s, guides began wearing period costumes and farming with historical techniques, a change that coincided with the back-to-the-land movement.

At museums and historic sites throughout the American South, a fuller and more complex picture of slavery is finally taking shape.

How popular and official narratives have obscured the damaging impact of the interstate highway system.

A conversation with Jill Lepore about the past decade — “a time that felt like a time, felt like history.”

A historian attends the 250th anniversary of the Tea Party, and reflects on the ways Americans remember one of the Revolution's main set pieces.

The 1619 Project claimed to reveal the unknown history of slavery. It ended up helping to distort the real history of slavery and the struggle against it.

The importance of contextualization and critical evaluation in historical analysis.

After 400 years, reality has begun to replace the lies.

Nazis play a key role as villain in American collective consciousness—but without broad understanding of antisemitism.

Contrary to popular belief, the 1773 protest opposed a tax break, not a tax hike. And it didn't immediately unify the colonies against the British.

The 1993 film also inspired its director, Steven Spielberg, to establish a foundation that preserves survivors' stories.

In "Ordinary Notes," Sharpe considers Black culture “in all of its shade and depth and glow.”

Fulbright created an exchange program which sends Americans abroad and advances international engagement and mutual understanding. Yet it’s not his only legacy.

An agency spokesperson claimed that the move had nothing to do with politics. Internal emails show otherwise.

You can call the United Daughters of the Confederacy a lot of things. But racist? Why, some of their best friends…

For years, LBJ was reviled for Vietnam. Then the historical tables turned in his direction. But they turned a little too far.

The Pennsylvanian was one of America’s greatest heroes. Why hasn’t he gotten his due?

Natchez, Miss., is beginning to highlight the history of its enslaved people—including at a Black-owned bed and breakfast in former slave quarters.

Paul Landis, 88, is one of the few survivors who had a firsthand view of Kennedy’s assassination 60 years ago Wednesday. He is only now telling his whole story.

The “historian general” of the United Daughters of the Confederacy began the battle over the depiction of the South in history textbooks that continues today.

Reenactments of the frontier west, complete with cowboy shootouts on main streets, reproduce a narrative of history that is widely accepted by millions.

In 1901, a series of articles took a dim view of the era, and of the idea that all Americans ought to participate in the democratic process.

And the grandmother who wouldn’t let him get away with it.

Two new books attempt to grasp Thoreau’s seeming contradictions without reconciling them too easily.

Touring the palimpsests of cities.

Maintaining the internet data of dead people.

For decades, Americans have argued over the icon’s legacy. But his archives show that he had his own plans.