Excerpts

In the early 1900s heyday of the Socialist Party, Texas boasted a vibrant state party that attracted oppressed farmers in droves.

How the utopian notion of the U.S. as a meritocracy became so ingrained in the American psyche.

The inventor, who baked the first batch of the iconic gum 40 years ago, talks about the genesis of an American rite of passage.

A conversation with historian David Hollinger about the rise of evangelicalism, the decline of mainline Protestantism, and the nature of America's secularism.

The author of a new book, The Underwater Eye, discusses how film enables audiences "to connect to the most remote environment on the planet: the ocean."

The John Birch Society pushed a darker, more conspiratorial politics in the ’50s and ’60s — and looms large over today’s GOP.

Two former CIA officials weigh in: "It's time to call him what he is: 'A liar.'"

A new history examines Silicon Valley, Palo Alto, the West Coast's settler ideology, and recent turbulence in the world of tech.

The Black Woman’s Organizing Archive highlights work in the 19th and 20th centuries that benefitted Black women and American society as a whole.

A conversation with presidential biographers Jonathan Alter and Kai Bird.

An interview with the author of "The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism."

How market fundamentalists convinced Americans to loathe government.

Much of what's happening in American race relations traces back to 1966, the year the Black Panthers were formed.

U.S.-Iranian relations, the interrelationship between Iranian development and the global oil market, and the future of economic warfare.

A new book reverses the narrative of the Age of Discovery, which has long evoked the ambitions of Europeans looking to the Americas rather than vice versa.

Stephanie St. Clair, who gained notoriety as a criminal entrepreneur and a fashion icon, was a powerful Black woman able to wrest control in a world run by men.

Political scientist Richard Bensel explains the feedback loops between policy commitments of political elites and the regional distribution of political power.

A new book examines military manuals as a genre to understand what armed counter-revolutionaries think of as the right way to do what they do.

Smith's influence on American politics, and the misunderstanding at the heart of our idea of the "champion of capitalism."

The author of a new biography explains how liberals played an important role in enabling Hoover’s antidemocratic crusade.

The concept of "heathenism" may seem outmoded, but it defines race and religion in America.

A new book recovers the many ways Protestant Americans, especially women, communicated with the dead from the 17th century to the rise of séance Spiritualism.

The late socialist writer's first book was a deep exploration of how the US labor movement became so weakened.

Evangelicalism and the more liberal “mainline” Protestantism must be understood in a dialectical relationship to one another, rather than in isolation.

Why the history of science is of use to not only the sciences, but all branches of scholarship.

On the persistent myth of the colorblind Constitution that the Supreme Court's conservatives have embraced.

A new book offers a picture of an early Internet defined by community, experimentation, and lack of privacy. 

A new book details the cooperative practices of Black farmers in the Deep South and Detroit who played a key role in the Civil Rights movement.

Marc Dollinger argues that the conventional wisdom of Black and Jewish harmony during the civil rights era is flawed. The real story has lessons for today.

“It’s important to study history if you want to be an intelligent citizen in a democracy.”

The story of a regional ruling class that struck a devil’s bargain with disease, going beyond negligence to cultivate semi-annual yellow fever epidemics.

How British protestantism connected colonies and empire until the rupture of the American Revolution.

It’s popularly remembered as a moderate demonstration. In fact, it was the culmination of a mass, working-class movement against racial and economic injustice.

The Civil Rights Movement was a radical struggle against Jim Crow tyranny whose early foot soldiers were Communists and labor militants.

A lively defense of narrative history and the lived experience that informs historical writing.

An interview on the queer history of a forgotten prison.

The most important dimension of the sexual revolution of the '60s and '70s was the increased freedom of sexual speech.

Why have historians overlooked the connections between abolitionism and the famous New England cultural movement?

The legacies of our racial past, and the prospects ahead for an embattled republic.

How the study of historical memory created a new reckoning with the creation of “American history."

America is best understood not as the first post-colonial republic, but as an expansionist nation built on slavery and native expropriation.

For the 30th anniversary of "Dirty Dancing," we spoke to the film's screenwriter about her revolutionary decision to include a depiction of an illegal abortion.

An interview with Ben Tarnoff, the author of "Internet for the People: The Fight for Our Digital Future."

Slaveholding plantations of the 19th century used scientific management techniques—and some applied them more extensively than factories.

Communists fighting the color line. Baseball players resisting owners. Baseball's untold history of struggles against racial injustice and labor exploitation.

Noam Chomsky discusses the hypocrisies of US empire and why if we really wanted to build a decent society, we’d immediately slash the massive military budget.

An interview with Woody Holton on his new book, "Liberty is Sweet."

Debates about what should be America’s role in the world are not new—neither is the slogan “America First.”

A conversation with historian Donna Murch about the past, present, and future of Black radical organizing.

Kim Stanley Robinson on how the High Sierra has influenced his science fiction.