Excerpts

Historian Richard White on the greed, ineptitude and economic cost behind the transcontinental railroads, and the implications for infrastructure policy today.

The historian Allen C. Guelzo believes that the Confederate general deserves a more compassionate reading.

An interview with Sean Wilentz on Library of America's new collection of Richard Hofstadter's works.

Led by A. Philip Randolph, Black Pullman porters secured dignity on the job — and laid the foundation for the modern Civil Rights Movement.

The debate between historians and economists over the definition of capitalism, and the legacy of slavery in the structure of today's economy.

Fidel Castro's visit to Harlem at the intersection of two themes that shaped the 1960s: the Black freedom struggle and global protest during the Cold War.

On the corrupt, contaminated, deceptive world of 19th-century food adulteration, and how Cohen's own work straddles pure academia and public-facing scholarship.

Guns have always loomed large in Black people's lives — going all the way back to the days of colonial slavery, explains reporter Alain Stephens from The Trace.

Today’s “medical freedom” warriors are drawing on a centuries-old American tradition.

It’s never just about religion, says the author of a book about celebrities discovering new religious identities.

Lawrence Matsuda talks about his family history, his experiences of discrimination, and his work in bilingual and Asian American representation in education.

The human rights activist and former sharecropper once said that “you are not free whether you are white or black, until I am free.”

In the 1960s and 1970s, photographer Leni Sinclair stood at the center of a local scene where political and cultural ferment merged.

May Ngai uses her experiences as an activist in the 1980s and her research on the 19th century Chinese diaspora to debunk stereotypes about Chinese Americans.

Antebellum slaveholders weren't content with an economic and social system based on trafficking in human flesh in the South alone.

A new book argues that the real estate industry’s campaign to defend housing segregation still echoes in today’s politics.

The psychological forces driving “red COVID” have deep historical roots.

Historian Davarian Baldwin explains how universities have come to wield the kind of power that were once hallmarks of ruthless employers in company towns.

A wide-ranging conversation with the philosopher on the white supremacist roots of liberal thought, Biden’s victory, and Trumpism without Trump.

A new book explores how George Washington shaped the group of advisors as an institution to meet his own needs.

Why the framers created the Electoral College — and why we need to get rid of it.

“I was shocked to learn that Hispanic conservatives celebrate Cortes’s arrival in Mexico.”

The New Yorker staff writer Steve Coll on the humanitarian catastrophe that is now likely to engulf Afghan civilians, and how Joe Biden is shifting the blame.

What’s new about the controversy over the Alamo’s history, and how the way Texans tell its story relates to how Americans see each other.

“Wherever there is race reform, there’s inevitably retrenchment.”

Records tell the story of the decline of the patriarchy, marrying young, and pandemic fallout. Digitizing the data could reveal even richer tales.

Pulitzer-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed reflects on the battle for the past and the fragile state of American democracy.

In 1921, twenty thousand armed miners in West Virginia marched on the coal bosses and were met with bombs and submachine guns.

"What makes this conspiracy theory so damaging is its adaptability."

The “border” is not a line on the ground, but a tool that enables violence and surveillance.

On the intersectionality of enslaved women and common misunderstandings about slavery.

In the 1800s, they helped lay the groundwork for the anti-vaccine movement.

How garbage physically shaped the development of New York.

Alfredo Villanueva-Collado on his J.C. Leyendecker collection and the fascinating story behind this oft-neglected male image maker.

The author of “The Engagement" discusses the activists, politicians, and judicial figures who were at the forefront of the battle over same-sex marriage.

A historian on the unavoidable discomfort around anti-racist education.

A look at the evolution of the prison system in California.

Most Black Tulsans in 1921 were working class. But these days, it seems like the fate of those few blocks in and around “Black Wall Street” is all that matters.

A conversation with Richard Jean So about combining data and literary analysis to understand how the publishing industry came to be dominated by white writers. 

How we sit isn’t the only thing midcentury modernism sought to control.

How anti-homosexual policies throughout military history helped shape gay culture today.

Sasha Geffen’s debut book reveals that the history of pop music is a history of gender rebellion.

What are Latin American ideas about race, and how have they been formed in relation to the U.S. and vice versa?

Stephen Kinzer discusses his new biography, “Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control.”

"Everything's sort of layered on a false understanding of history."

In a new book, historian Nicole Eustace reveals Indigenous calls for meaningful restitution and reconciliation rather than retribution.

Mexican-American workers have a long tradition of radical organizing, stretching back to the days of the IWW and the mid-century Communist Party.

A conversation between a historian and the creator of a new documentary short about NRA leader Harlon Carter.

A group of activists is calling attention to the legacy of slavery encoded in the names of New York City’s streets and neighborhoods.

April 15 may be Tax Day, but for some, it’s the 14th of April that’s notorious.