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Karl Marx gazing off into the distance while surrounded by books

Karl Marx’s Legacy in the United States

For two centuries, Karl Marx’s thoughts have significantly impacted US politics. In turn, his close study of the US informed the development of his ideas.
A racially diverse group of children saying the Pledge of Allegiance while one holds an American flag.

Who Gets to Be an American?

Since the earliest days of the Republic, American citizenship has been contested, subject to the anti-democratic impulses of racism, suspicion, and paranoia.
Photos of William F. Buckley and James Baldwin.

When William F. Buckley Jr. Met James Baldwin

In 1965, the two intellectual giants squared off in a debate at Cambridge. It didn’t go quite as Buckley hoped.
Harrison Williams holding a Camera.

Seeking Clues in Cabinet Cards

The poignant images, at once banal and intimate, in the Lynch Family Photographs Collection contain mysteries perhaps only the public can solve.
Political cartoon of men chopping down the tree of slavery.

The Root and The Branch: Working-Class Reform and Antislavery, 1790–1860

On the robust influence of labor reform and antislavery ideas and movements on each other from the early National period to the Civil War.
Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos photoshopped into a picture of Gilded Age millionaires.

Enjoying the Sweet Stink of The Gilded Age in the Age of Billionaires

On sanitized depictions of the 19th century, comfort shows, and income inequality.
Dyed ostrich feather samples in a book.

As Bright as a Feather: Ostriches, Home Dyeing, and the Global Plume Trade

In the 19th century, dyed ostrich feathers were haute couture, adorning the hats and boas of fashionistas on both sides of the Atlantic.
Painting of the Battle of San Pasquale in the U.S.-Mexico War.

Borders May Change, But People Remain

The legacies of conflict—and their increasingly accessible images in a global age—frame the shared bonds of trauma in keeping their memories alive.
Three Black men having a conversation.

Recovering the Forgotten Past of Black Legal Lives

Dylan C. Penningroth challenges nearly every aspect of our traditional understanding of civil rights history.
Aimee Semple McPherson addresses a crowd.

An Eerily Familiar 20th-Century Hoax

Aimee Semple McPherson created a wildly popular personal brand as a preacher—then suddenly disappeared.
A preacher preaches to Union soldiers in the Civil War.

Confession Eclipsed

On the rise and fall of confession in American Catholicism, and what the demography of today's Catholics says about the future of the faith.
Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn.

Blacklists and Civil Liberties

On the Second Red Scare and the lessons that it can provide for us today.
Enslaved people crossing a river at night.

The Power of the Dead: BaKongo Inspiration and the Chesapeake Rebellion

Sensitivity to the influence of BaKongo cosmology on Kongo Christianity can help us better understand the choices made by leaders of the rebellion.
Line drawings of related is school desegregation activism.

How Brown Came North and Failed

Half a century ago the civil rights movement’s effort to carry the campaign for school desegregation from the South to the urban North ended in failure.
Cover of "Sedition" featuring smoke engulfing the Capitol dome.
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An Attempt to Defeat Constitutional Order

After the Civil War, conservatives used terrorism, cold-blooded murder, and economic coercion to fight the new state constitution in South Carolina.
Sanitation truck.

W.A.S.T.E. Not

John Scanlan’s “The Idea of Waste” argues that all civilization is an attempt to make waste disappear.
Woodrow Wilson and a panel of red stars.

Surviving Bad Presidents

What the Constitution asks of us.
Old man and young boy.

The Perils of Generational Thinking

By assigning personal attributes to birth cohort, generationism tends to undermine personal responsibility.
Scene of prehistoric game hunters.

Prehistory’s Original Sin

We need more than genealogies to know who we are, and who we ought to become.
David Souter

Justice David Souter Was the Antithesis of the Present

His jurisprudence has been overshadowed by that of his showier colleagues but was a model of principled restraint.
Mark Twain

Mark Twain and the Limits of Biography

The great American writer witnessed the forging of his nation – but Ron Chernow’s portrait cannot see beyond its subject.
Mexican men in line for work in the Bracero program.
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What the World War II-Era Bracero Program Reveals About U.S. Immigration Debates

Efforts to restrict immigration have long coexisted with — and even reinforced — the nation's economic reliance on Mexican laborers.
Cartoon drawing with Red Scare history written on New York City buildings.

When the Red Scare Came for Jessica Mitford

A graphic episode from "Do Admit: The Mitford Sisters and Me."
McKinley poster that reads "Prosperity at home, prestige abroad."

Trump, Historians, and the Lessons of U.S. Tariff History

The omissions in Trump's historical narratives reveal how he views national wealth: only the people at the top of the socioeconomic ladder matter.
George Kennan; American soldiers and helicopters in Vietnam.

Conservative Realism and Vietnam

We were warned.
Eastern State Penitentiary in Pennsylvania.

Who Shall and Shall Not Have a Place in the World?

Can the racialist and eugenicist roots of statistics can be cordoned off from “proper” science?
V. Ramirez's Army Corps badge.

How Real ID Excludes Real Americans

My dad’s birth certificate said Vicente. His passport said Vince. New legislation would have disenfranchised him.
John Trumbull painting of the death of American General Richard Montgomery at the Battle of Quebec.

How the Thirteen Colonies Tried—and Failed—to Convince Canada to Side With Them In the Revolution

After peaceful attempts at alliance-building stalled, the Continental Army launched an ill-fated invasion of Quebec in June 1775.
Painting of the muse of history.
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So Ductile Is History in the Hands of Man!

The past and present of counterfactual history, from antiquity to the Napoleonic Wars to a few very active subreddits.

What If It Is Happening Here?

Lessons from the anti-fascist novel in Trump’s second term.
Title card for "Legacies of Eugenics" series, with a drawing of a form board for teaching shapes.

Trumpian “Common Sense” and the History of IQ Tests

On the troubling history of IQ tests and special education.
April 1999 photo of Los Angeles City Council candidate Alex Padilla addressing his supporters in Sylmar.

The Rise and Stumbles of the San Fernando Valley Latino Political Machine

On how Latino political power has changed Los Angeles.
LAPD building dedicated to William H. Parker.

The World Darryl Gates Made: Race, Policing, and the Birth of SWAT

The very features that made the LAPD appear more professional also expanded its reach and capacity for violence.
Women pilots in front of a plane.

How a Group of Fearless American Women Defied Convention to Defeat the Nazis

On the “Atta-Girls,” the pilots who chased adventure during the Second World War.
Murray Kempton

The Late, Great American Newspaper Columnist

The life and career of Murray Kempton attest to the disappearing ideals of a dying industry. But his example suggests those ideals are not beyond resurrection.
Brown University women's glee club, including Clara Gomberg, the first Jewish woman to graduate Brown.

“A Jewess Would Not Be Acceptable”

When it came to antisemitism, women’s colleges were no better than the Ivy League.
A National Police Week ceremony.

The Jim Crow Origins of National Police Week

Police brutality and corruption are painful realities. So are officers who die performing their duty. But the memorial in Washington fails to distinguish them.
Elon Musk and his son board Air Force One.

How William Howard Taft’s Approach to Efficiency Differed from Elon Musk’s

This isn’t the first effort by a president’s appointee to streamline government.

The Rise of ‘Mama’

Like most cultural shifts in language, the rise of white, upper-middle class women who call themselves ‘mama’ seemed to happen slowly, and then all at once.
Woman in prayer looks up to an angel holding a pen for advice.

What Kind of Questions Did 17th-Century Daters Have?

A 17th-century column shows that dating has always been an anxiety-riddled endeavor.
Donald Trump and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

When Presidents Sought a Third (and Fourth) Term

Winning more than two elections was unthinkable. Then came FDR.
Cardinals walking through the Vatican.
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Why Papal Conclaves Have Drawn the Attention of Spies

Intelligence agencies have long gathered information to help their governments get a sense of who the next pope might be.
The Young Lords in New York, 1969-1976.

How New York City’s Radical Social Movements Gave Rise to Hip-Hop

The revolutionary history behind one of America’s main musical exports.
William and Henry James.

William and Henry James

Examining the tumultuous bond between the two brothers.
Lyndon Johnson and Richard Helms, framed by a camera shutter.

Is Spying Un-American?

Espionage has always been with us, but its rapid growth over the past century may have undermined trust in government.
Representative Greg Casar, in front of a poster that says "Fire Elon, Save Elmo"

The Trump Administration’s Showdown with PBS and NPR

While Democrats waving a Big Bird doll around on the House floor saved public broadcast funding in the past, this strategy does not seem likely to work in 2025.
Ella Jenkins at a School Assembly Service performance, c. 1962.

Ella Jenkins and Sonic Civil Rights Pedagogy

She translated Black freedom movements' ideals into forms that children could enjoy and grasp, nurturing their political consciousness through music-making.
Hakeem Jeffries with a sign that reads "Hands off Medicaid and SNAP"
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The Historic Dangers of Slashing Medicaid Funding

Medicaid has always been fiercely contested political terrain, and past cuts have had disastrous human costs.
A magnifying glass on C. Wright Mills's book "The Power Elite."

Whatever Happened to the Power Elite?

The trio of interests atop business, military, and government depicted in C. Wright Mills’s postwar critique is no longer united in setting the national agenda.
Magazine ad of raccoons playing computer games.

The Raccoons Who Made Computer Magazine Ads Great

In the 1980s and 1990s, PC Connection built its brand on a campaign starring folksy small-town critters. They’ll still charm your socks off.
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