Photo of 5 skeletons controlling panels.

Notes from the Cold War Underground

The weapons infrastructure of the Cold War is now getting rented out on Airbnb or memorialized as patriotic kitsch.
Crowded and brightly-lit Beale Street in Memphis.
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Memphis: The Roots of Rock in the Land of the Mississippians

Rising on the lands of an ancient agricultural system, Memphis has a long history of negotiating social conflict and change while singing the blues.

A Hundred-and-Nineteen-Year-Old Book That Explains Eric Adams

A collection of political sermons attributed to a crooked machine boss is a handy reference for New York City’s current political chaos.
Debris from hurricane Helene.
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America Forgot a Crucial Lesson From Hurricanes of the Past

History reveals that even weakening storms do catastrophic damage when they hit mountainous regions.
An illustration of Florence March, a White House maid, and the ghost of a boy inside the White House.

The Thing in the White House

The White House's most terrifying ghost and the maid who saw it.
Boylston Street, Jamaica Plain, Boston, a residential street with a bike lane and a Black Lives Matter sign.

My Street Looks Different Now: Oral History and the Anti-Redlining Movement

For residents, organizers, and onlookers, neighborhoods can be a window for witnessing and making sense of history.

Eroticize the Hood

A new book revamps Newark's reputation as unsexy, violent, destitute, defiantly declaring it “a place of desire, love, eroticism, community, and resistance.”
People protesting the demolition of homes to make way for the performing arts saying "shelter before culture."

Lincoln Center Destroyed Lives for the Sake of the Arts

The terrific new doc “San Juan Hill” chronicles the 1960s land grab that gave the Metropolitan Opera a home, while scattering longtime residents.

The Making of the Springfield Working Class

Each generation of this country’s workforce has always been urged to detest the next—to come up with its own fantasies of cat-eating immigrants.
Battleship NEW YORK at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard dry dock, Bremerton, Washington, 1914
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Postcolonial Pacific: The Story of Philippine Seattle

The growth of Seattle in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is inseparable from the arrival of laborers from the US-colonized Philippines.
Man burning a picture of Abraham Lincoln.

City on Fire

The night violent anti-government conspirators sowed chaos in the heart of Manhattan.
Allyson Gray strolls through Dragon Run, Virginia.

The Hidden Story of Native Tribes Who Outsmarted Bacon’s Rebellion

A scene of conflict that was lost to the ages has been unearthed, assembling an indigenous perspective on events at the very root of America’s founding.
Aerial view of big buildings, wide roads, open parking lots, and affordable housing from "Project One" in Newport, Virginia.

Urban Renewal in Virginia

Urban landscapes and communities all across the state of Virginia still bear the scars of urban renewal.
Map of Central Park.

How Central Park Holds the Answers to Big NYC Secrets

From ancient Native American trails to billion-year-old rocks, take an in-depth look at the thousands of years of history housed inside this iconic park.
A colorful collage of Chicago Hustle basketball players during games.

When Chicago Hustled

In the late ’70s, a pro women’s hoops team briefly captivated the city by living up to its name. Then it all unraveled.
The Village Vanguard in Greenwich Village.

How Greenwich Village’s Iconic, Iconoclastic Music Scene Came to Be

Max Gordon, Prohibition, and the transformative creation of the Village Vanguard.
"Winter Scene in Brooklyn," 1820 painting by Francis Guy.

How Brooklyn’s Earliest Black Residents Found Empowerment and Solidarity in Their Diverse Community

The little known history of 19th-century New York City.
An inaccurate Spanish map from the 1500s of the southeast of the United States.

To Understand Mississippi, I Went to Spain

The forces that would shape my home state’s violent history were set in motion by a 480-year-old map made by a Spanish explorer.
Map of New England and Nova Scotia

The Case of New Ireland—Not Meant to Be

During the American Revolution, some individuals took advantage of the upheaval to advocate for a new colony: New Ireland.
Donald Trump stands in front of a microphone, holding a graph titled "Illegal Immigration into the US."

Trump’s Anti-Haitian Hate Has Deep American Roots

The former president’s grotesque demagoguery is just the latest in a long line of vicious attacks on residents and immigrants from the island nation.
Allied prisoners of war in Japan.

Ghosts, Seen Darkly: Richard Flanagan on Visiting the Site of a Japanese Prison Camp

The author remembers his father’s imprisonment at Ohama Camp.
Map of Cherokee Allotment from the Dawes Commission.

Coercion

“Allotment”—and its repercussions.
Tourists on a ferry sailing along the coast of Maine.

A Picture-Book Guide to Maine

Children’s stories set on the coast suggest a wilder way of life.
Aerial photo of housing projects in the Bronx.

Suffering, Grace and Redemption: How The Bronx Came to Be

On the early history of New York City's northernmost borough.
The East Boston Tunnel while under construction.

Circumventing the Past

Navigating around the harbor through the East Boston Tunnel.
Three workers taking a break inside a salt mine in the 1940s.

Salt of the Earth

In Winn Parish, an ancient salt dome has sustained life for centuries.
Costumed man and tourists in Colonial Williamsburg.

Where MAGA Granddads and Resistance Moms Go to Learn America’s Most Painful History Lessons

Welcome to Colonial Williamsburg, the largest living museum that is taking a radical approach to our national divides.

They Settled in Houston After Katrina — and Then Faced a Political Storm

The backlash against an effort to resettle 200,000 evacuees holds lessons for future disasters.
Storefront of Nazi-owned "Aryan Book Store" called "Silver Shirt Literature."

Bigoted Bookselling: When the Nazis Opened a Propaganda Bookstore in Los Angeles

On Hitler’s attempt to win Americans over to his cause.
Aerial view of suburbs.
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To Understand What Could Happen on Election Day, Understand the Suburbs

Even as they've diversified, suburban politics have remained protectionist — often defying ideological categorization.