Excerpts

After Japan's surrender, U.S. troops rebelled against a plan to keep them overseas, staging dramatic protests from the Philippines to Guam.

The rise of the first Black woman on the Louisiana Supreme Court was characterized by one battle after another with the Deep South’s white power structure.

Laws against teaching critical race theory might backfire on Republicans.

The time when Harvard made an atheist their head chaplain.

Experiencing history in Assassin’s Creed.

Like the 1619 Project, two new books on the Constitution reflect a vigorous debate about what has changed in the American past—and what hasn’t.

'Isn’t this supposed to be the museum of the motion picture industry?' a historian asks. 'They forgot about the industry part.'

John Berryman's Dream Songs made explicit the racialization of American poetry's turn—and the whiteness of lyric tradition.

The manner in which the debate unfolded is a reminder of the ways slavery affected everything it touched.

This overlooked corner of the press provided news by and for people incarcerated. A newly available archive shows it worked hard to reach outside audiences too.

How a series of emergencies resulted in the school lunch programs we have today.

Georgia enacted the Citizen's Arrest Law in an attempt to maintain control of enslaved people.

Are the truths in the Declaration of Independence really self-evident?

A concept that took hold in the ’70s has haunted everything from seat belts to masks—and experts won't let it die.

American innocence, the possession of history, and January 6, 2021.

The New Yorker critic's new book is a sequel of sorts to "The Metaphysical Club."

For decades, U.S. cities have been closing or neglecting public restrooms, leaving millions with no place to go.

The U.S. managed to pay for a child care program during the most expensive war ever. What happened?

Each time political minorities advocate for and achieve greater equality, conservatives rebel, trying to force a reinstatement of the status quo.

How a decades-long movement helped the far-right fringe gain control of the GOP.

My ancestors were enslaved—but their freedom came at a price for others.

Elizabeth Catte’s new book traces a shameful history and its legacy today.

In the years after the Civil War, some wanted a new seat of government that would be closer to the geographic center of a growing nation.

This digital memorial raises questions about the largest slave trades in history and offers access to the documentation available to answer them.

The city was once a bustling and infamous Great Lakes port. How should it be remembered?

When 'seditious' and 'unpatriotic' speech was criminalized in the U.S.

It’s never just about religion, says the author of a book about celebrities discovering new religious identities.

Leading gangs in Los Angeles were making peace as the city burned. How the city failed them rewrites our understanding of that moment.

James M. Smith explains the last debates between Loyalists and Patriots prior to the official outbreak of the American Revolution.

The life of Tulsa attorney B.C. Franklin is a testament to the triracial history of the West.

Bill Bleyer dives into the secret Culper Spy Ring during the American Revolution while disproving many of the urban myths surrounding the characters involved.

The Columbus Pacesetters weren’t satisfied being an afterthought or a gimmick, so they bought their franchise and the ability to make decisions for themselves.

Lawrence Matsuda talks about his family history, his experiences of discrimination, and his work in bilingual and Asian American representation in education.

For economist Albert Hirschman, social planning meant creative experimentation rather than theoretical certainty.

Hannah Arendt holds firm during the McCarthy era.

In October 1971, The Electric Company flipped a switch and hit the public TV airwaves, aiming to use sketch comedy and animated shorts to teach kids to read.

This year’s Juneteenth commemorations must take a deeper look at the history of Black self-liberation to understand what emancipation really means.

I had sung the Black National Anthem countless times, but hearing those words reverberate around me in this place, on this day, moved me in a new way.

How a dark-money mogul bankrolled an astroturf backlash.

Photographs of empty city streets went out of fashion, but lately are coming back again. What's lost in these images of vacant streets?

Scholars have yet to identify the young boy, but new research offers insights on his age and likely background.

For most people, birthdays were once just another day. Industrialization changed that.

From the first morbid films a hundred years ago, scary movies always been a dark mirror on Americans’ deepest fears and anxieties.

Her performances of the Black spiritual in the nineteen-thirties caused American and European audiences to fall silent in awe.

After the U.S Supreme Court forced school integration in early 1970, white families fled to either racist Central Academy or new Mennonite schools.

Benjamin Franklin's writing about losing his son to smallpox is a must-read for parents weighing COVID-19 vaccines today.

“Here we are, a group of Black lesbian feminist anti-imperialist anti-capitalists trying to do the right thing.”

Black people own just 2 percent of farmland in the United States. A decades-long history of loan denials at the USDA is a major reason why.

You can work around some of the holes this lack of access creates, but it takes years.

You get no windows. You take what you can get.