Excerpts

A conversation with Mike Davis about what must be done to combat the COVID-19 pandemic – and all the other monsters still to come.

A new book suggests that the plague’s horrors haunt modernist literature between the lines.

In his new book, Jon Mooallem tells the story of the Great Alaska Earthquake and Genie Chance, the woman whose voice on the radio held everyone together.

The 1930s Socialist Party is often seen as a marginal force, but its successes laid the groundwork for the next generation of organizing.

The Chinese Hospital in San Francisco is still one-of-a-kind.

Lessons from a century ago.

“Growing your own vegetables is great; beating Nazis is great. I think we’re all nostalgic for a time when anything was that simple.”

A biographer of Day talks about what we can learn from the iconic activist.

A new book chronicles the twists and turns of the 75-year-path to securing the vote for women.

A conversation with Breanne Fahs on the lasting lessons of women's anger.

The US carceral state is a monstrosity with few parallels in history. But most accounts fail to understand how it was created, and how we can dismantle it.

Jim Downs discusses the plight of freed slaves during the Civil War and Reconstruction.

The historian Frank M. Snowden discusses the politics of restricting travel during epidemics and more.

The Civil War started with a surrender, ended with a series of surrenders, and had several of its major campaigns end in surrender.

How "Choose Your Own Adventure" books indoctrinated ‘80s children with the idea that success is simply the result of individual “good choices.”

Its title, 'The Negro', seemed innocuous enough. But Malcolm X intended it to invoke a much harsher meaning.

Why Lincoln’s "one war at a time" doctrine saved the Union.

A cheeky biography of the first president pulls no punches.

An historian debunks the vice president’s op-ed.

A new book, "Franchise," explains how black franchise owners became the backbone of the industry.

Revolution, the civil rights movement, and African-American identity.

When it comes to imperialism, Latin America never forgets, and the United States never remembers.

Conservatives like to claim that leftists are opponents of free speech. But that’s nonsense.

In order to understand America, we have to understand the struggles of the black working class.

A conversation with food historian Andrew F. Smith on his new book, "The Turkey: An American Story."

Forty years after the Greensboro Massacre, a survivor talks about that day, and why organized workers are such a threat to the powerful.

It’s time to move past the tech sector’s creator myths.

The historical context of the amendments passed in the wake of the Civil War, Eric Foner argues, are widely misunderstood.

A new book discusses the black nationalism at the heart of Thomas’s conservative jurisprudence.

The Nixon impeachment proceedings and their parallels with the Trump-Ukraine scandal.

Beyond the "casualty numbers and bloodshed," a new history takes into account the "social and structural issues" of disability among soldiers and veterans.

For generations, Southern white elites have been terrified of poor whites and black workers joining hands.

In a taped call with Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan described the African delegates to the United Nations in luridly racist terms.

Trump may block entry to foreigners who need public benefits—a proposal rooted in 19th-century laws targeting poor immigrants.

Adam Chandler’s new book explores the intersection between fast food and U.S. history.

The international ambitions of the US slaveholding class and the abolitionist movement that brought them down.

Kap wasn't the first, and he won't be the last.

A century ago, the invocation of science was key to making Americans believe that newcomers were inferior.

Judy Juanita on her novel 'Virgin Soul,' which incorporates her experiences as a Black Panther living in San Francisco.

Black barbershops are a symbol of community, and they provide a window into our nation's complicated racial dynamics.

From prehistoric caves, through Aztecs, Mormons, Beat poets, Jean-Paul Sartre and a British MP.

A conversation with the curator of an exhibit about the oft-overlooked lives of women in early colonial Virginia.

Before Linda Brown became the lead plaintiff in Brown v. Board of Education, a generation of black girls and teens led the charge against “separate but equal.”

The Communist Party fought for racial equality in the South, specifically Alabama, where segregation was most oppressive.

Johnson’s impeachment was driven by his refusal to rid the country of the lingering effects of slavery.

Huerta was far more than an assistant of Cesar Chavez, leader of United Farm Workers, and she risked her life for her activism.

A Q&A with author Katharine Gerbner about "Protestant Supremacy."

The author of a book on paramilitary white supremacy discusses the methods and ethics of researching racial violence.

On the many moments when white Christians could have interceded on behalf of racial justice, but did not.

A songwriter-historian weighs in on the controversy over Lil Nas X’s country-trap hit.