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Curated stories from around the web.
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The front page of a 1908 San Francisco Chronicle reports the shooting of diplomat Durham White Stevens.

‘I Decided To Kill Him And Kill Myself’: When Imperialist Politics Lead To A Murder In SF

In 1908, Korean nationalists assassinated a pro-Japanese American diplomat in front of the Ferry Building.
Drawing of a fighter plane.

The Real Developmental Engine

Throughout its history, the technology sector has been dependent on the federal budget.
Sketches of animal bones superimposed on a map of rivers in the midwest.

The First Fossil Finders in North America Were Enslaved and Indigenous People

Decades before paleontology’s formal establishment, Black and Native Americans discovered—and correctly identified—millennia-old fossils.
Waco City Hall and a historical marker for the lynching.

Inside the Decades-long Effort to Commemorate a Notorious Waco Lynching

After years of opposition and delay, Waco finally has posted a historical marker about the 1916 murder of Jesse Washington.
Early phonograph.

How the Phonograph Created the 3-Minute Pop Song

And how streaming is changing it again.
Some pumpkins.

Ain't I Some Pumpkins?

Soon after he was elected, Abraham Lincoln received a rather bizarre letter.
An 18th-century building travels Feb. 10 from its location on the campus of William & Mary to Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area.
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Schools for Black American Children Predated the Revolution

Efforts in early America to educate Black children offer us a template for addressing educational inequality today.
1961 pamphlet for Florida's "Americanism vs. Communism" course.

The Long History of Conservative Indoctrination in Florida Schools

The top educational priorities in the Sunshine State were apparently reading, writing, and anti-communism.
Castro and Kruschev.
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Putin’s Nuclear Threats Evoke Cold War Tensions of the Cuban Missile Crisis

Russia’s recent nuclear threats have revived Cold War animosity with roots in the Cuban missile crisis.
Addressing the problem, some scientists believe, may require reimagining agriculture from the ground up.

Phosphorus Saved Our Way of Life—and Now Threatens to End It

Fertilizers filled with the nutrient boosted our ability to feed the planet. Today, they’re creating vast and growing dead zones in our lakes and seas.

What Did the Founders Mean by “Democracy”?

The main issue they were debating was how democratic a representative body should be. And their answer was “not very democratic at all.”
A shattered painting of Adam Smith.

The Betrayal of Adam Smith

How conservatives made him their icon and distorted his ideas.
William F. Buckley Jr. in 1958.

When Right-Wing Attacks on School Textbooks Fell Short

Some essential lessons from an earlier culture war.
Crowd gathers at the Memorial Amphitheater, circa 1920-1950.

Flowers of Remembrance Day: Inaugurating a New Tradition at Arlington National Cemetery

Decorating graves with flowers, from a Civil War grassroots ritual of remembrance to a national tradition honoring all military dead.
Stone hands holding up a bronze globe.

The Meddlers: Sovereignty, Empire and the Birth of Global Economic Governance

A new history explores the emergence of international economic institutions that continue to wield immense influence over the domestic politics of many states.
William Barber III standing in front of Vera Brown Farm.

Rebuilding the Homestead

How Black landowners in eastern North Carolina are recovering generational wealth lost to industry encroachment.
Billy Graham leading a prayer at the Republican National Convention, Miami, Florida, August 1968; Richard Nixon is at right.

Victimhood and Vengeance

The contemporary rise of Christian nationalism in the US is a reactionary response to the country’s liberalization over the past half-century.
Illustration of the Supreme Court and a school house mirroring each other. The Supreme Court sits atop a dollar bill, and the school house is upside down on the other side of the bill.

The Racist Idea that Changed American Education

How a landmark Supreme Court decision was shaped by the racist idea that poor children can’t learn.
Frederick Douglass Patterson, behind the wheel, with an unidentified passenger in a 1910 or 1911 Maxwell automobile in for repairs at the C.R. Patterson & Sons car repair shop, before the Pattersons began making cars themselves.

How America’s First — and Only — Black Automakers Defied the Odds

C.R. Patterson & Sons of Greenfield became the first Black-owned automobile manufacturer in 1915. More than a century later, it remains the only known one.
The author (left) talks with a student at the dedication ceremony for Annette Gordon-Reed Elementary School, October 2022.

A Historian Makes History in Texas

In the 1960s, Annette Gordon-Reed was the first Black child to enroll in a white school in her hometown. Now she reflects on having a new school there named for her.
German observation balloon launched near the Somme, September 1916.
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Why a Spy Balloon Inspires Such Fear and Fascination

When it comes to protecting our personal privacy, we’re not in Kansas anymore.
Image from cover of "Reconsidering Reparations"

Reconsidering Reparations

Reparations must be rooted in a political context that will safeguard rather than erode the gains they make towards justice.
The Armed Services Edition of the book "The Grapes of Wrath."
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America Fought Its Own Battle Over Books Before it Fought the Nazis

Recent years have witnessed a record number of challenges against books, especially in school libraries. But attempts to ban certain books isn't new in the U.S.
Comic strip: Bungleton Green and the Mystic Commandos: "Jon Smythe has escaped being lynched by Green Men but is captured by the "Dark Mystery!".

Jay Jackson’s Audacious Comics

Written during World War II, Bungleton Green and the Mystic Commandos imagined a future liberated from racism and inequality.
Ngango of Cameroon speaks to a crowd gathered at D.C.'s MLK Memorial.
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We’ve Erased Black Immigrants From Our Story, Obscuring a Racist System

We see our history of racism against Black Americans as distinct from our immigration policy, but the two are actually deeply intertwined.
Black soldiers in battle.

Double V: Military Racism

Today, the military is perhaps the largest integrated institution in the US. But how it came to be this way reveals a history of racism and resistance.
Five globes shaped like human faces, connected by threads.

It’s Time to Rethink the Idea of the “Indigenous”

Many groups who identify as Indigenous don’t claim to be first peoples; many who came first don’t claim to be Indigenous. Can the idea escape its colonial past?
Senator Richard B. Russell of Georgia outside the U.S. Capitol in 1965.

The U.S. Senate Has Three Buildings. Why Is One Still Named for a White Supremacist?

Georgia’s Richard Russell was an unrepentant racist. You’d think a name change would be a no-brainer. And yet...
Ron Desantis, his face partially covered by books, with soft gold lighting on his face and the book spines

The Forgotten Ron DeSantis Book

The Florida governor’s long-ignored 2011 work, "Dreams From Our Founding Fathers," reveals a distinct vision of American history.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.).
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Does John Fetterman’s Openness Signal New Acceptance of Mental Illness?

Some see the reaction to Sen. Fetterman’s announcement as a sign of progress, but that’s less true than you might think.
Victor Duhem, Woo Dunn and two other men (1910), posed in a portrait studio as if they were driving a car.

The Photos Left Behind From the Chinese Exclusion Era

The California Historical Society contrasts how Chinese people were portrayed in the press with the dignified studio portraits taken in Chinatown.
Emilio Delgado in 2021.

Emilio Delgado, ‘Luis’ for 44 Years on ‘Sesame Street,’ Dies at 81

On "Sesame Street," Delgado was able to build a character who challenged stereotypes. Luis was a business owner, a neighbor, and later a husband and father.
Postcard of The Rex Float at Mardi Gras Carnival, New Orleans, Louisiana.

The Strange Career of Beautiful Crescent

How an old textbook lodged itself in the heart of New Orleans’ self-mythology.
An aerial view of a firebombed area in Tokyo in 1945.

When Tokyo Burned

“Paper City” explores the forgotten firebombing of Japan’s capital.
Strongman Eugen Sandow poses in gladiator sandals and a bejeweled belt, standing on an intricately designed rug and leaning on a classical column, a setting designed to present him as civilized rather than as a “mere breaker of stones.”

Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession

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.
A Coal miner, his wife and two of their children in Bertha Hill, West Virginia, September 1938.

How Black Folks Have Built Resilient Spaces for Themselves in US Mountains

Did you know that there was a hidden utopia of formerly enslaved people located in the mountains of Appalachia?
Inmates playing touch football at Moberly Correctional Center in Moberly, MO, 1990.
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The First Famous Football Team Behind Bars

Sing Sing's football team, The Black Sheep, ascended to fame even though its players were incarcerated. One player was so good, he signed with the Eagles.
Painting of flowers called "The Island Garden," by Childe Hassam, 1892.

A Wiser Sympathy

How Emily Dickinson, scientists, and other writers theorized plant intelligence in the nineteenth century.
Luigi Einauldi, present of Italy in 1948, seated at his desk

The Dawn of Austerity

An interview with the author of "The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism."
Naomi Oreskes, sitting with her hands resting on her knees

America's Toxic Romance With the Free Market

How market fundamentalists convinced Americans to loathe government.
Police officers patrolling the streets at the start of the Birmingham Campaign in Birmingham, Alabama, May 1963. Frank Rockstroh/Getty
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The Police Dog As Weapon of Racial Terror

Police K-9 units in the United States emerged during the Civil Rights era. This was not a coincidence.
The old New York Times building in 2006.

The New York Times is Repeating One of Its Most Notorious Mistakes

The paper’s anti-trans coverage parallels its failings over gay rights and AIDS. But the Times appears determined not to learn from its own history.
Illustration of Abraham Lincoln writing the Emancipation Proclamation.

Abraham Lincoln Is a Hero of the Left

Leftists have regarded Lincoln as a pro-labor hero who helped vanquish chattel slavery. We should celebrate him today within the radical democratic tradition.
Workmen on the faces of Mount Rushmore, Pennington County, South Dakota, late 1930s. Roosevelt has scaffolding over his face.

President’s Day Is a Weird Holiday. It Has Been Since the Beginning.

How should a republic honor its leaders?
Vaishno Das Bagai (top right), Ramesh Chandra, Abnashi Ram, and other early South Asian immigrants, early 1920s.

United States of America vs. Vaishno Das Bagai

One-hundred years ago, the U.S. government waged a deliberate and organized campaign against South-Asian Americans.
Emma Goldman's mugshot in 1901.

Reading Red Emma: A Critique of Liberal Democracy in America

Emma Goldman’s opposition to the American government poses an interesting question for our modern democracy: is there room for radical dissent?
Kids splash at the Rec pool on June 30, 2022. Heather Khalifa / Staff Photographer.

Philadelphia Had a Radical Vision for Its Public Pools. What Happened?

A century of battles over a neighborhood pool reveal a complicated picture, about who matters, and who gets the chance to live well in a segregated city.
Mary Kay Ash photo with pink filter.

How Mary Kay Contributed to Feminism – Even Though She Loathed Feminists

Ash derided women’s liberation as “that foolishness” – but her success story is very feminist.
Bad Bunny performs for the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards.

Bad Bunny and the Political History of Reggaeton

The genre is the product of migration, rebirth, and the struggle to be heard.
Two DJs, DJ Aladdin on the left.

Scratch Cyborgs: The Hip-Hop DJ as Technology

Hip-hop DJ culture provides a rich site for exploring how culture and industry can converge and collaborate, as well as how they need each other to move forward.
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