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Hurricane Katrina flooding.

Through Hell and High Water: Katrina's First Responders Oral History Project

A collection of interviews with rescue workers who responded to the disaster.
via The Historic New Orleans Collection on June 27, 2020
The ceremony for the driving of the golden spike at Promontory Summit, Utah on May 10, 1869.

The Birth of Breaking News

On May 10th, 1869, the entire nation was waiting for the moment a silver hammer struck a golden spike, creating the first massive breaking news story.
by Aric Allen via YouTube on June 14, 2015
Poster for the WPA theatrical production of "It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis

Stealing the Show

Why conservatives killed America’s federally funded theater.
by Charlie Tyson via The Yale Review on June 10, 2024
Carbinari seal of a woman holding a liberty cap.

Lady Liberty in Restoration Italy? Crime, Counterfeit, and Carbonari Revolutionary Politics

Following Napoleon’s fall, international secret societies emerged promoting dissent from absolutist forms of power and sharing ideologies and iconographies.
by Giuseppe Perelli via Age of Revolutions on June 3, 2024
Dr. Ruth Westheimer holding a telephone and pointing a finger, as if giving advice.
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The Massive Cultural Changes That Made Dr. Ruth Possible

Dr. Ruth left a legacy of sexual candor and the need to defend pleasure as a universal right—a conversation that is more relevant today than ever.
by Rebecca L. Davis via Made by History on July 19, 2024
Close-up of E.E. Cummings, looking off to the side.

The Peculiar Legacy of E.E. Cummings

Revisiting his first book, "The Enormous Room," a reader can get a sense of everything appealing and appalling in his work.
by David B. Hobbs via The Nation on July 22, 2024
Cover of "Excited Delirium," left, and author Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús, right.

The Racist, Xenophobic History of "Excited Delirium"

A new book takes on a diagnosis invented to cover up police killings: that men of color are “combusting as a result of their aggressiveness.”
by Julia Métraux, Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús via Mother Jones on July 23, 2024
Illustration of John Roberts, with face obscured by half of the presidential seal.

The Supreme Court Fools Itself

The Roberts Court has made the current crisis of American democracy perpetual.
by Adam Serwer via The Atlantic on July 24, 2024
Joseph Berkowitz and Rae Kushner, Jared Kushner's grandparents, in Budapest in 1945.

Jared Kushner’s Grandparents Relied on Aid and Shelter as Refugees, Documents Show

Kushner was a top official in a Trump administration that sharply restricted immigration and refugee admissions. His grandparents were Holocaust refugees.
by Andrew Silverstein via Retropolis on July 22, 2024
A homeless man eating a meal in a park.

Good Deeds Unpunished

American law should protect the right of individuals to engage in charitable acts.
by Mark David Hall, Adam J. Macleod via Law & Liberty on July 22, 2024
NATO leaders in the 1950s sitting together at a conference.

Ill-Suited to Reality: NATO’s Delusions

It has suddenly become popular to cast NATO as the first benign military alliance in history, without concealed politics.
by Tom Stevenson via London Review of Books on August 1, 2024
The Hall of the House of Representatives.

Are We Living Through Another 1850s?

It’s difficult to see how these profound antipathies and fears will dissipate soon through any normal political processes.
by Robert W. Merry via The American Conservative on July 22, 2024
From left, Sam Warner, Harry M. Warner, Jack L. Warner, and Albert Warner.

Are Hollywood’s Jewish Founders Worth Defending?

Jews in the industry called for the Academy Museum to highlight the men who created the movie business. A voice in my head went, Uh-oh.
by Michael Schulman via The New Yorker on July 17, 2024
The Caucasus Mountains, a mountain system that runs through several countries.

Why Do We Keep Using the Word “Caucasian”?

When a term signifies something that does not exist, we need to examine our use of it.
by Yolanda Moses via Sapiens on February 1, 2017
Barry Goldwater giving a speech at the Republican National Convention.
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The Republican National Convention That Shocked the Country

The pulsating anger in San Francisco 60 years ago became the party's animating spirit.
by Charles J. Holden via Made by History on July 17, 2024
Benjamin Hawkins and the Creek Indians.

“Weapons of Health Destruction…” How Colonialism Created the Modern Native American Diet

On the impact of systematic oppression on indigenous cuisine in the United States.
by Andrea Freeman via Literary Hub on July 24, 2024
Albert Bierstadt painting of American Indians in a forest.

Thomas Jefferson's Quest to Prove America's Natural Superiority

French theorists said that American native species were inferior to European ones—the former President went to great lengths to show that they were wrong.
by Andrea Wulf via The Atlantic on March 7, 2016
Godey's Lady's book cover, 1867.
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All Hale Thanksgiving

In the 1820s, Sarah Hale, a New England widow and the editor of Godey’s Ladies Book made it her mission to get Thanksgiving recognized as a national holiday.
via BackStory on November 15, 2016
A woman waving to a man who is joining passing soldiers. From the sheet music for "The Soldier's Farewell to His Bride," 1864.
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The Woman’s War

Gender dynamics on the home front, and the ways in which the Civil War is distinct from other American conflicts.
via BackStory on March 31, 2011
Drawing of a classic pirate figure, wtih an earring, a tricorn hat, and a satchel, yelling orders at a crew while a ship burns in the background

Were Pirates Foes of the Modern Order—or Its Secret Sharers?

We’ve long viewed them as liberty-loving rebels. But it’s time to take off the eye patch.
by Daniel Immerwahr via The New Yorker on July 15, 2024
A political cartoon of Charles Guiteau holding a pistol and a sign that reads "An Office or Your Life."

Why Are Presidential Assassins Such Sad Sacks?

What would-be killers of the US commander in chief have in common is that they aren’t fervent ideologues; they’re outcasts.
by Zack Budryk via The Nation on July 22, 2024
AI-generated illustration of a blue neural network, surrounded by code and data graphics, against dark background.

How Machines Came to Speak (and How to Shut Them Up)

On the intertwined history of free speech law and media technology.
by Alex Sayf Cummings via Society for U.S. Intellectual History on September 24, 2023
Sera Koulabdara and four members of a Laos demining team scanning the ground in grassy area.

Fifty Years of Living with America’s Unexploded Bombs

Laos was collateral damage in the U.S.' secret war. The wounds are visible in the land and in generations still waiting on justice.
by Sera Koulabdara via Zócalo Public Square on December 21, 2023
Three men fight on a rooftop, above a large city on a river.

The Golden Age of the Paranoid Political Thriller

On the grand tradition of movies reflecting a deep distrust of those in charge.
by Keith Roysdon via CrimeReads on March 25, 2024
Exterior of Attica Correctional Facility.

The “Long Attica Revolt”

The resistance inside prisons is an integral part of the struggle against white supremacy and for Black liberation beyond the walls.
by Robert J. Boyle via Against the Current on June 30, 2024
Rick Beato on the left, and John Philip Sousa, on the right.

Separated By More Than A Century, Two Musicians Share A Complaint

What happens when the automation of music makes it too easy to create and too easy to consume?
by Mark R. DeLong via 3 Quarks Daily on July 15, 2024
Dr. Ruth on “Late Night” with David Letterman in 1985.

The Secret That Dr. Ruth Knew

She left exactly when we need her most.
by Stephen Marche via The Atlantic on July 21, 2024
The Little White School House in Ripon, Wisconsin.

Looking Back at Wisconsin's Long History with the Republican Party

The one-room schoolhouse that was one of the birthplaces of the GOP.
by Chuck Quirmbach via WUWM on July 13, 2024
Tornado near Turkey, Texas, in 2009.
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The Real History Behind 'Twisters'

For as long as scientists have studied tornadoes, researchers have dreamed of controlling them.
by Kate Carpenter via Made by History on July 19, 2024
Gold Dust on the Air: Television Anthology Drama and Midcentury American Culture by Molly A. Schneider. University of Texas Press. 238 pages.

The Myth America Show

The anthology drama provided a venue for discourses on American national identity during the massive cultural, economic, and political changes occurring at midcentury.
by Josie Torres Barth via Los Angeles Review of Books on July 13, 2024
A young girl in black and white look at her reflection, in color, in a mirror.

How Judy Blume’s "Deenie" Helped Destigmatize Masturbation

On self-pleasure and sex education in children's literature.
by Rachelle Bergstein via Literary Hub on July 16, 2024
Wilbert E. Longfellow being saved from the water by a female lifeguard.
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Women Have the Daring to Be Real Life Savers

How a tragedy in New York City convinced Americans to learn how to swim.
by Vicki Valosik via HNN on July 16, 2024
Doodles, flourishes and scribbles drawn by George Washington.

Doodle Nation: Notes on Distracted Drawing

Humans have doodled for as long as they have written and drawn, but psychoanalysis began to imagine the doodle as a key to understanding the unconscious mind.
by Polly Dickson via The Paris Review on July 17, 2024
Map showing the forecast over the UK and part of France on D-Day.

A War Meteorologist’s Riveting Account of How the Allies Averted a D-Day Disaster

The D-Day landings turned the tide of the war, but their success rested on the uncertain calculations of Allied meteorologists.
by Marco Alessi, Anthony Wilks via Aeon on July 17, 2024
Skateboarder doing trick on ramp.

How a Generation of Women and Queer Skateboarders Fought for Visibility and Recognition

On defying gender norms and expectations in extreme sports.
by Deborah Stoll via Literary Hub on July 18, 2024
The 54th Massachusetts regiment storming Fort Wagner.

Did Robert Gould Shaw Have to Volunteer the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts to Prove Their Bravery?

Questions linger about the assault on Fort Wagner, which took place on this day in 1863.
by Kevin M. Levin via Civil War Memory on July 18, 2024
Joe Biden sitting in the Oval Office.

There Has Been Nothing Like This in American History

Joe Biden is hardly the first president who has decided not to seek a second term—but the circumstances this time are unique.
by Fred Kaplan via Slate on July 21, 2024
Hannah Ardent

Anatomist of Evil

Lyndsey Stonebridge’s book hurls us deeper into Hannah Arendt’s thinking, showing us that there was muddle rather than method at the heart of it.
by Stuart Jeffries via Literary Review on February 1, 2024
Evelyn Nesbit Thaw dodging a camera, 1909.
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Overexposed

What happened to privacy when Americans gained easy access to cameras in the Gilded Age?
by Sohini Desai via HNN on July 2, 2024
Nihomachi Hotel in Seattle's Japantown.

Seattle’s Japantown Was Once Part of a Bustling Red Light District — Until Residents Were Pushed Out

The erased histories of the communities that built Seattle.
by Nina Wallace via Densho: Japanese American Incarceration and Japanese Internment on March 18, 2024
A man tacks applications to Princeton University on a bulletin board
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The Rise of the College Application Essay

The essay component of American college applications has a long history, but its purpose has changed over time.
by Sarah Stoller via Made by History on July 11, 2024
Charred ruins of Lahaina following the fire.

After Wildfires Destroyed Lahaina, the Battle to Restore an Ancient Ecosystem Will Shape Its Future.

A wetland restoration project is bringing hope to Maui residents who want to honor Lahaina’s history and return water to the town after last year’s fires.
by Reis Thebault via Washington Post on July 11, 2024
Book cover of "The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920."

Expanding the Boundaries of Reconstruction: Abolitionist Democracy from 1865-1919

Sinha enlarges the temporal boundaries students are accustomed to by covering the end of the 19th century into the Progressive era with the 19th Amendment.
by Erik J. Chaput, Russell J. DeSimone via Commonplace on July 16, 2024
Melinda French Gates and Bill Gates speak during the 'Gates Foundation' press conference at the Annual Meeting 2009 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 30, 2009" by Remy Steinegger.

Philanthropy’s Power Brokers

An in-depth reckoning with the Gates Foundation as a discrete actor is long overdue.
by John Miles Branch via Public Books on July 17, 2024
An oblique view of Columbus Circle taken on Jan. 7, 1924 by the Fairchild Aerial Camera Company.

A Portrait of New York City by Air in 1924

Long before Google Maps, an intrepid inventor with three camera-equipped biplanes captured a groundbreaking view of Gotham in its Jazz Age glory.
by Thomas J. Campanella via Bloomberg on June 29, 2024
Buzz Aldrin lands on moon for the first time, Apollo 11.

Apollo 11 Launch: "If You Can Survive the Simulations, the Mission is a Piece of Cake"

The grueling, relentless simulations astronauts that prepared the astronauts for quick decision-making in space.
by Myles Burke via BBC News on July 15, 2024
Jason Epstein.

The Man Who Created the Trade Paperback

On the life and times of Jason Epstein, cofounder of “The New York Review of Books.”
by Michael Castleman via Literary Hub on July 18, 2024
Noam Chomsky.

How George Orwell Paved Noam Chomsky’s Path to Anarchism

On the profound impact of Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia" on Noam Chomsky's early embrace of left-libertarian and anarchist ideologies.
by Robert F. Barsky via The MIT Press Reader on July 3, 2024
Charles Francis Phillips and Owen Cattell, two Columbia University students, seated.

In 1917, Columbia’s Clampdown Remade the Antiwar Movement

When police raided Columbia University in May, commentators drew parallels to the 1968. But the school’s hostility to the antiwar movement traces back to 1917.
by Dan La Botz via Jacobin on July 11, 2024
A freeze-frame of Eddie Murphy smiling at the camera in Beverly Hills Cop.

Bring Back the Freeze-Frame Ending!

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F spends its final moments on a thrilling cinematic trope of the ’80s, one that I would argue is due for a comeback.
by Chris Stanton via Vulture on July 15, 2024
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