Excerpts

The Nation of Islam is controversial. Its practical purposes for incarcerated people transcend both politics and religion.

Research on psychedelics has been riddled with medical racism and exclusion but it hasn’t stopped Black people from finding creativity and solace through drugs.

Why we should resist hero-worshipping Ukraine’s president.

Historian Daryl Scott weighs in on the 1619 Project and the "possibility that we rend ourselves on the question of race."

DNA tests have become popular tools to rediscover lost ties to the past, but the links they forge do not always stand up to historical scrutiny.

A new book explains why Americans know so little about other countries.

On Americans’ complicated relationship to taxes, from the colonial period through the Civil War to the tax revolts of the 1980s.

In the 1970s, NOW began to ask hard questions about the women who were no longer "homemakers", displaced from the only role they were thought to need.

On heavy metal’s fascination with Roman emperors.

Laws controlling what schools teach about race and gender show an awareness that classrooms are sites of nation-building.

The entire plot of Stanley Kubrick's Cold War satire turns around getting people on the phone.

The far-right protestors in Huntington Beach aren’t as novel as they seem.

For American journalists abroad in the interwar period, it paid to have enthusiasm, openness, and curiosity, but not necessarily a world view.

Video game history is lost faster than we can preserve it.

The National Black Political Convention of 1972 saw many national giants on the Black political scene.

Rupert Russell’s new book shows how the financialization of commodity prices worsens volatility and destabilizes geopolitics. It couldn’t be more timely.

Markoff’s biography of Stewart Brand notes that Brand’s ability to recognize and cleave to power explains a great deal of his career.

A single reference in the historical record has spawned an array of adaptations, most of which overstate the anonymous figure's role in the Culper Spy Ring.

A few decades ago, the left and the right, politicians and the public, universally embraced the criminalization of drug use. But a new consensus has emerged.

Basic healthcare in the 20th Century greatly impacted the way that the drug business currently operates in the United States.

Prisons have been controversial since their beginnings in the late 1700s — why do they keep failing to live up to expectations?

"The American Scene" is Henry James’s indictment of what Americans had made of their land.

A review of three new books that in various ways track the rise of the "Professional Managerial Class."

How American racism, capitalism, and imperialism led the U.S. to sabotage African democracies.

Hal Brands urges the U.S. to make China and Russia “pay exorbitantly” for their policies. History shows that has never worked.

The defeat of Robert Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court in 1987 changed the way justices are confirmed today.

It’s never been easier to piece together a family tree. But what if it brings uncomfortable facts to light?

On who gets caught in the crosshairs when it comes to “beef."

A cautionary tale about the costs and benefits of public/private partnerships.

The Solomon Sir Jones films consist of 29 silent black and white films documenting African-American communities in Oklahoma from 1924 to 1928.

The Coloured Hockey League doesn’t get a prominent place in most tellings of hockey’s story, but its legacy is undeniable.

How microeconomic reasoning took over the very institutions of American governance.

The Underground Railroad conductor's understanding of botany, wildlife biology, geography and astronomy allowed her to guide herself and others to safety.

Fifty years ago, first lady Pat Nixon admired a tin of Chinese cigarettes. Then China sent the U.S. a pair of giant pandas.

Revisiting post-war activist movements around the world to understand generational conflicts in the left.

Can a cross-border effort to bring wild bison to the Great Plains restore one of the world's most endangered ecosystems?

Joe Biden is just the latest in a long line of US presidents to trace their ancestry back to the Emerald Isle.

The number one complaint: Children had to go to school in the dark.

Why do we dance? African-American social dances started as a way for enslaved Africans to keep cultural traditions alive and retain a sense of inner freedom.

A riot represents people making history.

A humorous 1917 blank notebook invites consideration of the fight for women’s suffrage in the USA.

Giles Tremlett tells the story of the foreigners who joined the first line of defense against fascism in Europe.

From Phillis Wheatley to Lil Uzi Vert, Black names and their evolution tell the story of America.

Digging down into the roots of white America’s infatuation with Black.

Airlines sometimes bumped Black passengers off of flights to make room for white travelers, even during refueling stops.

Current attempts to correct historical discrimination by local and regional offices of the USDA have been met with charges of "reverse discrimination."

When the war in Ukraine finally ends, will we take peace organizations and peace movements more seriously?

Even the most ardent advocates of NATO expansion after the implosion of the USSR realized that it had limits—and one of those limits was Ukraine.

A new book tells the stories of four interwar writers who laid the groundwork for modern journalism.

How Washington outsources its dirty work.