Excerpts

On the origins of racial exclusion in the society that would become the United States of America.

"The Color of Law" offers an indicting critique of the progressive agenda.

The America that emerged out of the Civil War was meant to be a radically more equal place. What went wrong?

A history of modernity as a history of factories struggles to see beyond their walls.

The 200-year legal struggle that led to Citizens United and gave corporations the rights of people.

A new history recovers the forgotten legacy and radical implications of the Kerner Commission.

A review of "The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap."

In the case of Chester Arthur, the story is one of surprising redemption.

A crucial new work of generational analysis explores how society turned millennials into human capital.

Selma and the unfulfilled promise of civil rights.

How Americans got so weird about science.

The radical vision of Wages for Housework.

The myth that Appalachia is uniformly White lingers, but communities of “Affrilachians” were documented in the 1930s.

How Walt Whitman became the quintessential poet of disability and death.

Three new books paint a more nuanced portrait of the American militias whose gun rights have been protected since the founding.

The University of Virginia has long been a bastion of white supremacy and white supremacy–validating scholarship.

A review of "Closing the Courthouse Door: How Your Constitutional Rights Became Unenforceable" by Erwin Chemerinsky.

"Masterless Men" shows how poor whites benefited from slavery's end, but does not diminish the experiences of the enslaved.

"Masterless Men" shows how the antebellum political economy made poor southern whites into a volatile, and potentially disruptive, class.

"Hillbilly Elegy" has been used to explain the 2016 election, but its logic is rooted in a dangerous myth about race in Appalachia.

A new book, ‘Active Bodies,’ explores the history.

Reflecting on the tremendous impact of "The Souls of Black Folk," on the 150th anniversary of Du Bois' birth.

The long historical roots and continuing relevance of the disgraced preacher's story.

His presidency was known for corruption, scandal, and booze. In a new book, Ron Chernow attempts to rehabilitate it.

Nazi Germany has closer ties to America and its history of institutionalized racism than some may think.

Understanding the immense reach and cultural implications of Latin American music.

A review of "Lines of Descent: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Emergence of Identity," by Kwame Anthony Appiah.

Lily Geismer reviews the second edition of Corey Robin’s “The Reactionary Mind.”

An 18th-century novel explores how American society handles capitalism's collateral damage — and who deserves a second chance.

The rise and fall of Clintonism.

A new book about the My Lai massacre raises the question: how much of an aberration was the infamous wartime episode?

The debate between "originalism" and the "living constitution" rages on. What does history say?

A review of "The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America."

A spate of new books explores the composition and motivations of the demographic that has been credited with electing Trump.

Two new biographies look at the life of Inez Burns, an uncompromising and extravagant turn-of--the-century woman.

American unions have struggled to make substantial gains since the ’70s, but not for the reasons historians think.

A new book says the conflict began in the late 19th century and subsumed even World War II as our defining event.

The autobiography of NBA star Craig Hodges contains lessons for the pro athletes who are speaking up today.

How the Spanish-American War laid the groundwork for American empire.

Clinton's memoir addresses the gendered discourse and larger feminist contexts of the 2016 presidential campaign.

A biography of Stevie Nicks does little to dispel the magic.

A new biography of Lucy Parsons makes it clear that the activist deserves attention apart from her more well-known husband.

Mike St. Thomas reviews ‘Paradise Lost: A Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald.'

'The Population Bomb' made dire predictions—and triggered a wave of repression around the world.

How a work of science fiction anticipated the coming of Trump.

For every amusingly wrong prediction in “Toward the Year 2018,” there’s one unnervingly close to the mark.

A new history argues that the Second Amendment was intended to perpetuate white settlers' violence toward Native Americans.

The notion that a government’s chief obligation is getting stuff done is a fairly recent arrival on the historical scene.

Ta-Nehisi Coates' latest book preaches political fatalism. But black activism has always believed in the possibility of change.

Noam Maggor’s new book captures how it took both sides of the American continent to revitalize the economy after the Civil War.