Excerpts

Curated stories from around the web.
New on Bunk
Mitch McConnell smiling.

How the Conservative War on Campaign Finance Regulation Hastened Roe's Downfall

How the movement to end legal abortion became intertwined with a different conservative pet project.
Prosecutor Linda Fairstein, left, during a news conference in New York on March 26, 1988. Seated at the table next to her are District Attorney Robert Morgenthau and Ellen Levin, mother of Jennifer Levin, who was murdered in 1986. (Charles Wenzelberg/AP)
partner

Linda Fairstein is Under Fire for the Central Park Five. But Another Part of Her Career Deserves Greater Scrutiny

By targeting sex workers, she enacted policies that harmed the most vulnerable women.
Douglas Engelbart wearing an earpiece, sitting at a computer, in 1968.

The Future, Revisited: “The Mother of All Demos” at 50

How the ’60s counterculture gave birth to personal computers and the vast tech industry that builds and sells them.
Painting of George Washington.
partner

How George Washington Held Officials Accountable for Border Violence

And what Congress can learn from his efforts.
Photo of three airplanes on a runway, one exploding.

D.B. Cooper, The Changing Nature of Hijackings and the Foundation For Today's Airport Security

Cooper’s hijacking-as-extortion plot captured the public’s imagination – and inspired a copycat crime wave.
Donald Duck with a U.S. military hat

How Disney Propaganda Shaped Life on the Home Front During WWII

A traveling exhibition traces how the animation studio mobilized to support the Allied war effort.
Billboard saying "Welcome to California Where Abortion is Safe and Still Legal"
partner

What Pre-Civil War History Tells Us About the Coming Abortion Battle

Fights over fugitive slave laws pitted states against each other and showcased the risks of the federal government not supporting liberty.
A modern adaption of Howard Chandler Christy’s 1940 painting, “Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States,” with contemporary players on both sides of the judicial contest.

How The Federalist Society is Helping Conservatives Win The Judicial War

It isn’t just about Supreme Court picks. The group’s impact on the law goes much deeper.
Store window selling shirts and ties mentioning the "Nixon Squeeze"

The Burglaries Were Never the Story

The historical insights of one era have been lost to the journalistic instincts of another.
The Bullion Mine, Virginia City, Nevada, in a village at the foot of a mountain.

Gold Diggers on Camera

Creating the myth of the gold rush with the help of daguerreotypists.
Andrew Jackson

Trump Wasn’t the First President to Confront the Supreme Court – and Back Down

The story of President Andrew Jackson and Worcester v. Georgia, decided in 1832.
Congresswomen Omar, Pressley, Ocasio-Cortez, and Tlaib.
partner

The Radical Roots of ‘the Squad’

How Mickey Leland and the Congressional Black Caucus paved the way for today's progressive politics.
Robert Welch, founder of the John Birch Society, standing next to a portrait of the group's namesake, Captain John Morrison Birch.

December 9, 1958: The John Birch Society Is Founded

“Together with other ‘know nothing’ organizations scattered through the country, it represents a basic, continuing phenomenon in American society.”
Trump displaying a table of reciprocal tariffs.
partner

The Dangers of President Trump’s Favorite Word — Reciprocity

The Gilded Age roots of Trump's trade philosophy.
Painting of Santa Claus giving a sword to a Confederate cavalryman next to a dinosaur.

What Is Revisionist History?

What is revisionist history--and is it dangerous?
The Burr-Hamilton Duel, 1804, Peter Newark American Pictures / Bridgeman Images .

Dueling: The Violence of Gentlemen

What honor required of men.
Black and white photo of John Muir sitting on a rock

John Muir's Literary Science

The writings of the Scottish-born American naturalist John Muir are known for their scientific acumen as well as for their rhapsodic flights.

Bittersweet Harvest

The long and brutal journey of the yam.
Sign that reads "Instructions to all persons of Japanese ancestry living in the following area"

Memory Work: Reading and Writing Japanese American Incarceration

What new possibilities might arise if we were to consider history as ongoing memory work, rather than a set narrative of progress or as singular “truth”?
A collection of flags, games, and printed matter from the Civil War

Patriotism and Consumerism in the Civil War

For a burgeoning consumer society, store-bought flags and bonnets offered proof that commercialism could go hand in hand with heartfelt emotion.
In 1972, Ray Womack, wearing an “Explo 72" shirt, begins a 900-mile run to Dallas, for an evangelical rally.
partner

An Evangelical Youth Event Could Offer Clues About the Movement’s Future

TOGETHER ’22 aims to mimic EXPLO ’72 — which provided hints about the rising conservative evangelical tide.
A demonstrator outside the Supreme Court as the court rules in the Dobbs v. Women’s Health Organization abortion case on June 24, 2022.
partner

Overturning Roe Could Threaten Rights Conservatives Hold Dear

Parental rights stem from the same liberty that the Supreme Court just began rolling back.
Picture of Senator Raphael G. Warnock

Sen. Raphael G. Warnock Remembers How the Police Killing of Amadou Diallo Sparked His Activism

"It didn’t make much sense for us to be talking about justice in the classroom if we weren’t willing to get in the struggle in the streets."
Compilation of images: signs at the 1963 March on Washington, poster about censorship, confederate flag, KKK members in hoods, drawing of overseer wielding whip, classroom with portrait of Lincoln on the wall.

Behind the Critical Race Theory Crackdown

Racial blamelessness and the politics of forgetting.
Painting of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin while writing the Declaration of Independence.

How the Complete Meaning of July Fourth Is Slipping Away

John Adams would not be happy to see what Independence Day has become.
Illustration of a gavel by Vahram Muradyan

Why Do Americans Have So Few Rights?

How we came to rely on the courts, instead of the democratic process, for justice.
Book cover of "The Chinese Question The Gold Rushes and Global Politics"

Who Digs the Mines?

A new book recognizes the global character of Asian exclusion.
Illustrations on the cover and inside of the book “Fighting the Traffic in Young Girls or War on the White Slave Trade," depicting poor woman behind bars and a rich woman dining with a man.
partner

The Supreme Court Letting States Mandate Morals Will End Badly

History shows laws will end up as weapons deployed in discriminatory ways to curtail freedom.
A plaque in Brooklyn commemorating Robert E. Lee.

It’s Hard to Get Rid of a Confederate Memorial in New York City

At least one monument has come down this summer, but two streets in Brooklyn have proved difficult to rename.
"Fleet" Walker (middle row, far left) poses with Oberlin College's first varsity baseball team in 1881. Walker went on to become the first African American major leaguer.

The First African American Major League Baseball Player Isn’t Who You Think

As the country celebrates Jackie Robinson Day, let’s consider the career of Fleet Walker.

The Atlantic Writers Project: Harriet Beecher Stowe

A contemporary Atlantic writer reflects on one of the voices from the magazine's archives who helped shape the publication—and the nation.
Undated photo of summering Bohemians on a dock in Provincetown, Mass.

‘The Shores of Bohemia’ Review: A Radical Cape Cod Colony

Generations of utopians seeking inspiration and sea breezes made the trek from Greenwich Village to Cape Cod’s picturesque vistas.
Black and white photo of Sitting Bull

The Early Life of the Renowned Leader of the Lakotas, Sitting Bull

The baby boy who would one day become the renowned and feared leader of the Lakotas was the second child of Returns Again and Her Holy Door.
Collage of summer camp, toasting marshmallows, swimming, boating, camping, trees, and wildflowers.

The Life Lessons of Summer Camp

A few weeks in the woods have taught kids to face new situations, make their way among strangers, solve their own problems—and live a more authentic life.
Robert S. McNamara at a news conference in April 1966

Robert McNamara’s Son Reckons With a Legacy of Destruction

Craig McNamara’s family did not talk about the Vietnam War. He spent his life asking questions about it.
Drawing of a crowd of delegates at the 1972 Democratic National Convention. (Franklin McMahon / Getty Images)

A Big Tent

The contradictory past and uncertain future of the Democratic Party.
Illustration of a coal stove with the roof of a house, as if the whole house is a furnace.

When Coal First Arrived, Americans Said 'No Thanks'

Back in the 19th century, coal was the nation's newfangled fuel source—and it faced the same resistance as wind and solar today.
Black and white photo of Ishmael Reed as a child in Willert Park Courts, 1943.

The Buffalo I Knew

The city is at a crossroads. Which path will it take?
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) listens to former president Donald Trump as they speak during a tour of the U.S.-Mexico border wall on June 30, 2021, in Pharr, Tex. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
partner

The New Threat to Good Schooling for Minority Americans

The right might be targeting a seminal Supreme Court case that protects educational fairness.
UCLA guard Jaime Jaquez Jr. and USC forward Isaiah Mobley during an NCAA game March 5 in Los Angeles.
partner

History Explains Why It Makes Sense for USC and UCLA to Join the Big Ten

It's the resurrection of an old dream.
Hellen Keller portrait

The Atlantic Writers Project: Hellen Keller

A contemporary Atlantic writer reflects on one of the voices from the magazine's archives who helped shape the publication—and the nation.
Donald Rumsfeld in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2005 (Jim Young-Pool/Getty Images).

Lasting Cruelties

A new book situates the War on Terror as a story of domination which traces back to the founding of the US as a settler-colonial and slaveholding behemoth.
The ill-fated Sultana in Helena, Ark., just before it exploded on April 27, 1865, with about 2,500 people aboard. Most were Union soldiers, newly released from Confederate prison camps.

The Shipwreck That Led Confederate Veterans To Risk All For Union Lives

On April 27, 1865, a steamboat named the Sultana exploded and an estimated 1,800 people died, but few today have heard of this disaster.
A Denmark Vesey monument in Hampton Park in Charleston, South Carolina.

Denmark Vesey’s Bible

The leader of a would-be South Carolina slave rebellion was hanged 200 years ago. A new account is a must-read.
"Under My Wings Every Thing Prospers" by New Orleans artist J. L. Bouqueto de Woiseri, 1803, depicting an eagle flying over a port city and agricultural fields.

Slavery's Revolutions In Louisiana

Comparing the results of two Louisiana slave rebellions 20 years apart and what that meant for the continuation of slavery within the Deep South.

TV's Rural Craze & The Civil Rights Movement

At the same time that MLK was using TV to brand Southern sheriffs as obstacles to progress, a Southern sheriff was one of the medium's most beloved characters.
A woman wearing a winter coat and a mask walks outside the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund, Washington, D.C., January 2022.

How the System Was Rigged

The global economic order and the myth of sovereignty.
Francis Fukuyama

Last Man Standing

Francis Fukuyama pines for that old-time liberalism.
Hitchhikers sitting on a road, thumbs extended.

That Ol’ Thumb: Hitchhiking

A review of "Driving With Strangers: What Hitchhiking Tells Us About Humanity."
“The Marriage of Convenience,” 1883, by William Quiller Orchardson, depicting a bored young woman and an older man at opposite ends of a long dining room table.

How To Lose a Guy in the Gilded Age

Uncovering the resort where rich women sought the elusive right to divorce
Filter by:

Categories

Select content type

Time