Excerpts

Thomas Jefferson's republican simplicity.

The modern Republican Party has always exploited and encouraged extremism.

Long marginalized and misrepresented in U.S. history, the Wampanoags are bracing for the 400th anniversary of the first Pilgrim Thanksgiving in 1621.

The baby stroller is only the most visible symbol of the ethos of consumer capitalism that saturates American pregnancy and parenthood.

Class-obsessed consumers found the cold, hard and highly breakable figurines irresistible.

Christmas starts earlier every year — or does it?

The Christian, the athlete, and the activist.

Who designed the first sticker? And does anyone care about it anymore?

The Cromwell twins fled the constrictions of high society for the freedoms of the literary world. Ravenous for greater purpose, the twins then went to war.

The oft forgetten story of fugitive slaves whose escape from bondage found them in the Antebellum South's major cities.

A history of horse racing, it's slang, and handicapping.

Interpreting dreams for fun and profit. The importance of oneiromancy (dream reading) to American betting culture.

The shocking power of immersing oneself in another world was all the buzz once before—about 150 years ago.

“The bearing of this upon social conditions can hardly be overestimated.”

Last Seen is recovering stories of families separated in the domestic slave trade. The following explains how the project engages with these family histories.

A brief discussion of the fierce 19th century debates over beards, and how booming American cities created the perfect climate for all that facial hair to grow.

How historians have understood Africa and the Black diaspora in global conversations about race and identity.

The moral contradiction of a nation torn between allegiance to its highest ideals and awareness of the base realities of racial discrimination.

A new work of history finds the best antidote to today’s authoritarian politics in Daniel Webster’s 19th-century civic nationalism.

‘Specimens’ were acquired from Africa, Asia, and the Americas by deceptive human traffickers.

A documentary about his life and circle is a study in complicity.

Reclaiming sweetness in an anti-Black world.

Perhaps no Native American is more admired for military acumen than the Lakota leader. But is that how he wanted to be remembered?

Meet the duo who helped achieve the most important labor and civil rights victories of their age.

Some of the stars depicted in Yesiltas’ portraits are instantly recognizable as modern-day sirens, while others are less obvious at first glance.

This digital exploration of the region's LGBTQ community from 1946 to 1992 includes an interactive map and several thematic StoryMaps.

For pioneering journalist Bessie Beatty, women’s suffrage and the plight of labor were linked inextricably.

How an Asian American literary pioneer fell into obscurity.

Nothing dates our vision of the future like how we remember the past.

Our government institutions, and especially our scientific ones, have a duty to rebuild the public trust that has eroded over the last half century.

By age 44, most people are figuring out how to live and die peacefully. That was certainly not the case with sharecropper and hero Fannie Lou Hamer.

Thanks to an 1835 treaty, they’re pushing Democrats to approve a nonvoting delegate.

The F.B.I. director promised to save American democracy from those who would subvert it—while his secret programs subverted it from within.

One of the US's newest national parks has put West Virginia in the spotlight, but there's a deeper history to discover about its African American coal communities.

They looked at France and said: “Make it make sense.”

Is Jefferson's Bible evidence that the Founding Fathers engaged with scripture to birth a Christian nation? Or that they sought to foster a new secular order?

Considering the lessons and history of Crockett Johnson’s classic.

A brief look into Equiano's life reveals that many Black figures were considerably more transnational in their movements and critiques than commonly assumed.

A new book uncovers the story of New York’s pursuit of water, and the homes and communities destroyed in the process.

"Female physicians" did a lot more than provide abortions, but abortion soon encompassed how others perceived their work.

Presidents used to own their personal papers — but there were real security reasons for changing that.

Some lessons for Joe Biden from the ’70s presidents who lived it.

In the US, where less than one percent of the land is owned by black people, Black landownership has historically been a means to challenge economic oppression.

The absence of robust transportation infrastructure hurts us — and not only at the gas pump.

The story of Motley's legal career prior to Brown v. Board, and her crucial participation in it.

Creedence Clearwater Revival’s unique blend of traditional and progressive sensibilities.

Newspaper announcements from 1859 reveal how some Richmond slaveholders organized to protect the institution of slavery.

The elixir had antifreeze, for flavor. Nobody blinked—at first.

Assessing age — and protecting children — has always been subjective.

The author's personal history with the dolls, and an argument for American Girl to make a new doll with a disability.