Excerpts

He covertly assisted conductors on the Underground Railroad, but it was his possession of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” turned that him into an abolitionist hero.

How actual terrorists like Trump and ICE have expanded the definition of terrorism to include everyone they don’t like.

Article II of the Constitution offered significant concessions to those who preferred a more plural executive.

The founders distrusted standing armies and favored militias. But over time, the Second Amendment shifted from militia defense to broad individual gun rights.

Law enforcement agencies have become the standing armies that the Founders feared.

A roundtable discussion about David Suisman’s “Instrument of War.”

And more on how the first "Big Men on Campus," Herbert Hoover, and friends, kept charge in the university, in the workplace, and on the national stage.

RAND’s halcyon days lasted two decades, during which the corporation produced some of the most influential developments in science and American foreign policy.

The fight against 'Jim Crow jobs' took blood, sweat, tears, and boycotts.

How William F. Buckley shaped modern conservatism through his organizational skills and charisma.

Chronicling the vigilante crime that shook 1980s New York City.

Yale's Beinecke Library marks the centennial of 10,000 people marching through New York City, one of the earliest African American civil rights demonstrations.

The PC industry first landed on the FCC’s radar not for the computers themselves, but for the electrical noise they emitted. Blame the CB radio.

Conservatives once panicked about a supposed federal plot to invade their communities and quash dissent. Now they’re cheering it.

An expert on Presidential emergency powers discusses the history and legality of military deployments in American cities.

A close examination of the writings of Wisconsin's Victor Berger shows that his views on race changed dramatically over time.

The Combahee River Collective’s 1977 statement reshaped the politics of the Black left and beyond.

On black leadership and interracial heroism during the Cold War.

Coretta Scott King would become one of the nation’s most visible—and, to some, most dangerous—critics of America’s rapidly expanding war in Vietnam.

One of the most brilliant minds of the Harvard class of ’35, Reed Peggram met his soulmate on the eve of World War II and risked everything to stay by his side.

The greatest song that Cobain never sang.

When historical details are nonexistent, make them up. Not usually considered sound advice to historians, but possibly warranted under these circumstances.

“The house has been home to some of the greatest mayors in our city’s history,” Eric Adams tells Vanity Fair, “and it truly radiates that energy."

The correct response to Dachau was not better training for the guards.

Before her murder made her a true-crime obsession, Elizabeth Short was a real person. A new book tries to separate truth from myth in the infamous case.

McInnis discusses what inspired his new book on the role of the Black South in the contruction of Black modernity.

A ‘new history’ of the politicized classroom misses the mark.

The rise of a violent authoritarian state under Trump unveils a deep uncertainty over what America is.

Leaders of the American Historical Association overruled a motion to condemn scholasticide in Gaza, opting for cowardice over ethical clarity.

Cathcart's moves through the slave hierarchy to a position of comfort and prosperity were accomplished through his diplomatic skill and the power of literacy.

The CIA secretly funded the 1954 Animal Farm film, reshaping Orwell’s ending to push anti-Soviet messaging during early Cold War politics.

On the eternal tension between human creativity and mechanical efficiency.

The first neoliberals distrusted Christianity. Their heirs have tried to revise it.

DOJ civil rights lawyers' resignations after leaders' refusal to probe ICE murder echo past revolts as administrations tried to politicize the Division.

Today’s therapeutic ketamine clinics echo the tactics patent medicines once used to exploit women.

Anti-Hollywood rhetoric often echoed anti-Jewish stereotypes. Carr shows how fears of Jewish “control” shaped debates over movies, culture, and politics.

Racial injustice was central to the establishment of the U.S. death penalty. Ending racial injustice must be central to its abolition.

Bill Haast, the Florida man who tried to milk medical miracles from deadly snakes.

Is it reasonable to invoke the memory of the horrors Frank suffered outside of a strictly Jewish context?

78 years ago, a US plane deporting 28 Mexican nationals crashed into California’s Los Gatos Canyon, killing all aboard.

The difficulty of amending the Constitution does not mean that it is a flawed and outdated relic of a distant past.

After reading Jason A. Heppler’s book, Patrick McCray decides that Silicon Valley should really be called Arsenic Valley.

A digital history project uses geospatial data to show how killing became a deliberate and communicative tool of extralegal mob violence.

On the pioneering and problematic career of Oscar Micheaux.

Today, only nine countries have nuclear weapons. That outcome was hardly inevitable, and the story of how we arrived there holds important lessons for AI.

Sixty years into the fire that left the town condemned, Centralia is now a haven for wild plants and butterflies.

From ugly duckling to Super Bowl favorite, a Whittier postman's discovery transformed California agriculture.

The political coalition that has formed under Trump’s banner has the potential to reshape American politics.

Exploring the non-human markers of colonial expansion and the emergence of modern capitalism through sugar plants and plantation landscapes.

Its museums, more than any others, shape the nation’s narrative. No wonder the country argues about it.