Excerpts

The Index of Deep Disadvantage reflects a more holistic view of how we can define "poverty."

On the importance of material ownership in the context of Black history.

The actual, and mythic, roles played by Irish immigrants in New York now fed the imaginations of the young Irish immigrants carving space for themselves in the 1980s.

Despite facing political headwinds and raising 'suspicion' among publishers, 'Reading Rainbow' introduced generations of American kids to books.

“I’ve learned, through hundreds of interviews and years of research, is that what crack really did was expose every vulnerability of society.”

On the complex relationship between Black Americans and the Black church.

Civil rights activists failed to expel an all-white, segregationist delegation. But their efforts foreshadowed later milestones in the fight for equality

Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination was the fateful moment that the wave of hope finally broke for Black America.

Moral panics repeat, again and again.

Political repression through the suppression of free expression.

The tramp picks up his bowler hat and cane for the first time.

The controversial historian drew criticism from both left and right. We need more like him today.

And justified the most extreme responses.

The post-9/11 landscape witnessed crackdowns on New York City nightlife amidst efforts to increase tourism.

Public outcry over whistleblower William Morgan's disappearance gave rise to the Anti-Masonic Party, which nominated a candidate for president in 1832.

And the origins of the term “Kafkaesque.”

How Henry Ford managed the formation of the Ford Motor Company.

When drafting the Constitution, our founders had no need of prayer.

A companion to a new PBS film, "The Memorial Day Massacre," the first oral history exploring the murder of 10 workers in Chicago.

On the necessary “deep sincerity” of dark humor.

It would be a mistake to think of the current wave of attacks on “critical race theory” as a culture war. This is a political battle.

In 1838, leaders of the Catholic order faced opposition from their own priests, but pressed forward with the sale of 272 human beings anyway.

How abolitionists viewed the American flag.

How has America slid into its current age of discord? Why has our trust in institutions collapsed, and why have our democratic norms unraveled?

The view from nowhere came from somewhere.

The war marked a sea change in how black men viewed their own citizenship.

Debating the meaning of gender is hardly new, but the clinical origin of the word may come as a surprise.

In 1928, two Americans invented a large metal breathing device that would become synonymous with polio treatment.

Redistributing land was once central to global development efforts—and it should be today.

Meet the self-help author who wanted to teach corporate America how to think.

The disclosure of Billy Graham's recommendation of war crimes did not exicte any commotion.

The United States’ destruction of Iraq remains the worst international crime of our time. Its perpetrators remain free and its horrors are buried.

A new account sheds light on the Ford administration’s war against Sen. Frank Church and his landmark effort to rein in a lawless intelligence community.

It is impossible to understand the U.S. without understanding its Indigenous history, writes Ned Blackhawk.

How Black women used exercise to achieve civic goals in the late nineteenth century.

The Klan dens of the heartland were powerful, vicious, and ambitious. Indiana was their bastion.

“I am frightened by the proportions of my prosperity,” Twain said. “It seems to me that whatever I touch turns to gold.”

When the smoke cleared in D.C. following the 1968 riots after the assasination of MLK, the city's black communities organized to rebuild a more equitable city.

Competition over eggs on the Farallon Islands in the midst of the California Gold Rush in San Francisco led to an all out war between eggers.

From Hemingway to Mencken, no one thought a woman could write about combat.

A new book tells the definitive history of an Alabama community founded by survivors of the slave trade.

She risked everything to escape a life of poverty and become one of the nation's most read columnists, while advocating for the advancement of women.

The impact of Black ball players' fight for higher compensation and labor protections in the ‘70s is felt today.

A new book offers the first full-length biography of newspaper editor, labor leader and minister Samuel Ringgold Ward.

The decline of the John Birch Society offers possible strategies for containing the MAGA movement.

A new book about the first lady reveals how she and the ailing President Woodrow Wilson silenced their critics.

All coed camps can be like this. But Jewish ones were different.

A century ago, physical fitness was part of a strange subculture, where strong bodies were extraordinary and meant to placed on pedestals for people to observe.

How Emily Dickinson, scientists, and other writers theorized plant intelligence in the nineteenth century.