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Seeking Clues in Cabinet Cards
The poignant images, at once banal and intimate, in the Lynch Family Photographs Collection contain mysteries perhaps only the public can solve.
by
April White
via
JSTOR Daily
on
February 17, 2025
Author Interview On "The Root and The Branch: Working-Class Reform and Antislavery, 1790–1860"
On the robust influence of labor reform and antislavery ideas and movements on each other from the early National period to the Civil War.
by
Rosemary Fuerer
,
Sean Griffin
via
LaborOnline
on
April 9, 2025
Enjoying the Sweet Stink of The Gilded Age in the Age of Billionaires
On sanitized depictions of the 19th century, comfort shows, and income inequality.
by
Danielle Teller
via
Literary Hub
on
May 15, 2025
As Bright as a Feather: Ostriches, Home Dyeing, and the Global Plume Trade
In the 19th century, dyed ostrich feathers were haute couture, adorning the hats and boas of fashionistas on both sides of the Atlantic.
by
Whitney Rakich
via
The Public Domain Review
on
May 7, 2025
Borders May Change, But People Remain
The legacies of conflict—and their increasingly accessible images in a global age—frame the shared bonds of trauma in keeping their memories alive.
by
Emiliano Aguilar
via
Public Books
on
April 24, 2025
Recovering the Forgotten Past of Black Legal Lives
Dylan C. Penningroth challenges nearly every aspect of our traditional understanding of civil rights history.
by
Ajay K. Mehrotra
via
Los Angeles Review of Books
on
April 3, 2025
An Eerily Familiar 20th-Century Hoax
Aimee Semple McPherson created a wildly popular personal brand as a preacher—then suddenly disappeared.
by
Dorothy Fortenberry
via
The Atlantic
on
May 12, 2025
Confession Eclipsed
On the rise and fall of confession in American Catholicism, and what the demography of today's Catholics says about the future of the faith.
by
James F. Keating
via
First Things
on
March 19, 2025
Blacklists and Civil Liberties
On the Second Red Scare and the lessons that it can provide for us today.
by
Clay Risen
,
Miguel Petrosky
via
Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera
on
May 13, 2025
The Power of the Dead: BaKongo Inspiration and the Chesapeake Rebellion
Sensitivity to the influence of BaKongo cosmology on Kongo Christianity can help us better understand the choices made by leaders of the rebellion.
by
Ryne Beddard
via
Commonplace
on
May 6, 2025
How Brown Came North and Failed
Half a century ago the civil rights movement’s effort to carry the campaign for school desegregation from the South to the urban North ended in failure.
by
Linda Greenhouse
via
New York Review of Books
on
May 8, 2025
partner
An Attempt to Defeat Constitutional Order
After the Civil War, conservatives used terrorism, cold-blooded murder, and economic coercion to fight the new state constitution in South Carolina.
by
Marcus Alexander Gadson
via
HNN
on
May 13, 2025
W.A.S.T.E. Not
John Scanlan’s “The Idea of Waste” argues that all civilization is an attempt to make waste disappear.
by
Madeleine Adams
via
The Baffler
on
May 15, 2025
Surviving Bad Presidents
What the Constitution asks of us.
by
George Thomas
via
The Bulwark
on
May 16, 2025
The Perils of Generational Thinking
By assigning personal attributes to birth cohort, generationism tends to undermine personal responsibility.
by
Richard Gunderman
via
Law & Liberty
on
May 16, 2025
Prehistory’s Original Sin
We need more than genealogies to know who we are, and who we ought to become.
by
Connor Grubaugh
via
The Hedgehog Review
on
May 6, 2025
Justice David Souter Was the Antithesis of the Present
His jurisprudence has been overshadowed by that of his showier colleagues but was a model of principled restraint.
by
Jeannie Suk Gersen
via
The New Yorker
on
May 15, 2025
Mark Twain and the Limits of Biography
The great American writer witnessed the forging of his nation – but Ron Chernow’s portrait cannot see beyond its subject.
by
Erica Wagner
via
New Statesman
on
May 12, 2025
partner
What the World War II-Era Bracero Program Reveals About U.S. Immigration Debates
Efforts to restrict immigration have long coexisted with — and even reinforced — the nation's economic reliance on Mexican laborers.
via
Retro Report
on
May 9, 2025
When the Red Scare Came for Jessica Mitford
A graphic episode from "Do Admit: The Mitford Sisters and Me."
by
Mimi Pond
via
The Nation
on
May 13, 2025
Trump, Historians, and the Lessons of U.S. Tariff History
The omissions in Trump's historical narratives reveal how he views national wealth: only the people at the top of the socioeconomic ladder matter.
by
Elizabeth McKillen
via
LaborOnline
on
May 1, 2025
Conservative Realism and Vietnam
We were warned.
by
Francis P. Sempa
via
Modern Age
on
May 12, 2025
Who Shall and Shall Not Have a Place in the World?
Can the racialist and eugenicist roots of statistics can be cordoned off from “proper” science?
by
Lily Hu
via
Los Angeles Review of Books
on
February 13, 2025
How Real ID Excludes Real Americans
My dad’s birth certificate said Vicente. His passport said Vince. New legislation would have disenfranchised him.
by
Catherine S. Ramírez
via
Zócalo Public Square
on
May 12, 2025
How the Thirteen Colonies Tried—and Failed—to Convince Canada to Side With Them In the Revolution
After peaceful attempts at alliance-building stalled, the Continental Army launched an ill-fated invasion of Quebec in June 1775.
by
Eli Wizevich
via
Smithsonian
on
May 12, 2025
partner
So Ductile Is History in the Hands of Man!
The past and present of counterfactual history, from antiquity to the Napoleonic Wars to a few very active subreddits.
by
Madeline Grimm
via
HNN
on
May 13, 2025
What If It Is Happening Here?
Lessons from the anti-fascist novel in Trump’s second term.
by
David Renton
via
Literary Hub
on
May 12, 2025
Trumpian “Common Sense” and the History of IQ Tests
On the troubling history of IQ tests and special education.
by
Pepper Stetler
via
Los Angeles Review of Books
on
May 8, 2025
The Rise and Stumbles of the San Fernando Valley Latino Political Machine
On how Latino political power has changed Los Angeles.
by
Gustavo Arellano
via
Los Angeles Times
on
February 27, 2024
The World Darryl Gates Made: Race, Policing, and the Birth of SWAT
The very features that made the LAPD appear more professional also expanded its reach and capacity for violence.
by
Aaron Stagoff-Belfort
via
The Metropole
on
May 7, 2025
How a Group of Fearless American Women Defied Convention to Defeat the Nazis
On the “Atta-Girls,” the pilots who chased adventure during the Second World War.
by
Becky Aikman
via
Literary Hub
on
May 8, 2025
The Late, Great American Newspaper Columnist
The life and career of Murray Kempton attest to the disappearing ideals of a dying industry. But his example suggests those ideals are not beyond resurrection.
by
Roz Milner
via
The Bulwark
on
May 9, 2025
“A Jewess Would Not Be Acceptable”
When it came to antisemitism, women’s colleges were no better than the Ivy League.
by
Amy Sohn
via
Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera
on
May 8, 2025
The Jim Crow Origins of National Police Week
Police brutality and corruption are painful realities. So are officers who die performing their duty. But the memorial in Washington fails to distinguish them.
by
Elizabeth Robeson
via
The Nation
on
May 9, 2025
How William Howard Taft’s Approach to Efficiency Differed from Elon Musk’s
This isn’t the first effort by a president’s appointee to streamline government.
by
Laura Ellyn Smith
via
The Conversation
on
May 9, 2025
The Rise of ‘Mama’
Like most cultural shifts in language, the rise of white, upper-middle class women who call themselves ‘mama’ seemed to happen slowly, and then all at once.
by
Elissa Strauss
via
Longreads
on
May 10, 2015
What Kind of Questions Did 17th-Century Daters Have?
A 17th-century column shows that dating has always been an anxiety-riddled endeavor.
by
Sophia Stewart
via
The Atlantic
on
May 7, 2025
When Presidents Sought a Third (and Fourth) Term
Winning more than two elections was unthinkable. Then came FDR.
by
Russell Berman
via
The Atlantic
on
May 1, 2025
partner
Why Papal Conclaves Have Drawn the Attention of Spies
Intelligence agencies have long gathered information to help their governments get a sense of who the next pope might be.
by
Yvonnick Denoël
via
Made By History
on
May 7, 2025
How New York City’s Radical Social Movements Gave Rise to Hip-Hop
The revolutionary history behind one of America’s main musical exports.
by
Dean Van Nguyen
via
Literary Hub
on
May 6, 2025
William and Henry James
Examining the tumultuous bond between the two brothers.
by
Peter Brooks
via
The Paris Review
on
April 1, 2025
Is Spying Un-American?
Espionage has always been with us, but its rapid growth over the past century may have undermined trust in government.
by
James Santel
via
The Atlantic
on
May 8, 2025
The Trump Administration’s Showdown with PBS and NPR
While Democrats waving a Big Bird doll around on the House floor saved public broadcast funding in the past, this strategy does not seem likely to work in 2025.
by
Abby Whitaker
via
Clio and the Contemporary
on
May 1, 2025
Ella Jenkins and Sonic Civil Rights Pedagogy
She translated Black freedom movements' ideals into forms that children could enjoy and grasp, nurturing their political consciousness through music-making.
by
Gayle F. Wald
via
Black Perspectives
on
April 25, 2025
partner
The Historic Dangers of Slashing Medicaid Funding
Medicaid has always been fiercely contested political terrain, and past cuts have had disastrous human costs.
by
Ben Zdencanovic
via
Made By History
on
May 6, 2025
Whatever Happened to the Power Elite?
The trio of interests atop business, military, and government depicted in C. Wright Mills’s postwar critique is no longer united in setting the national agenda.
by
Peter Dreier
via
The New Republic
on
May 5, 2025
The Raccoons Who Made Computer Magazine Ads Great
In the 1980s and 1990s, PC Connection built its brand on a campaign starring folksy small-town critters. They’ll still charm your socks off.
by
Harry McCracken
via
Technologizer
on
April 22, 2025
Lost and Found: The Unexpected Journey of the MingKwai Typewriter
Its ingenious design inspired generations of language-processing technology, but only one prototype was made and had long been assumed lost.
by
Yangyang Chen
via
Made In China Journal
on
May 2, 2025
partner
The History of Why Raw Milk Regulation is Necessary
In the 19th century, tens of thousands of babies died every year of gastroenteritis.
by
Carla Cevasco
via
Made By History
on
April 29, 2025
Tony Bui on the Vietnam War’s Cinematic Legacy
Films from Vietnam and Hollywood testify to the range of stories told about the war on-screen and the different memories they embody.
by
Will Noah
,
Tony Bui
via
Current [The Criterion Collection]
on
April 29, 2025
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