Excerpts

Curated stories from around the web.
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A lightbulb with a virus inside

World War II’s Lesson for After the Pandemic

The U.S. needs another innovation dream team.
Lithograph of two men shooting one man on the ground

The Young America Movement and the Crisis of Household Politics

In the 19th century, freedom from government interference mapped onto opposition of women's rights.
Statue of missionary Marcus Whitman in a park.
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The Nomination of Chuck Sams to Lead the Park Service is Already Changing History

The NPS is working with Cayuse historians and students to correct a historical lie that shaped the West.
Young and old hands.
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The Pandemic has Exacerbated the Transformation of Grandparenthood

While our perceptions of grandparents have remained static, we've asked them to do a lot more.
Photographer Leni Sinclair in a crowd filming an event.

When Detroit Was Revolutionary

In the 1960s and 1970s, photographer Leni Sinclair stood at the center of a local scene where political and cultural ferment merged.
Pillow and blanket on hospital bed

How the Bush Administration Did More For AIDS in Africa Than At Home

Emily Bass on foreign aid and America's response to long-standing pandemics.
Collage of a man's photograph within a cutout of another man

Searching for Mr. X

For eight years, a man without a memory lived among strangers at a hospital in Mississippi. But was recovering his identity the happy ending he was looking for?
Montpelier, the home of James Madison in Orange, Virginia

Is History for Sale?

The omnipresence of slavery at historic sites today seems intended to tarnish remarkable achievements and promote the cause of identity politics.
Map that shows indigenous territories

Land Acknowledgments Meant to Honor Indigenous People Too Often Do the Opposite

Land acknowledgments stating that activities are taking place on land previously owned by Indigenous peoples are popular. But they may do more harm than good.
Black and white photo of two Disney World "cast members" posed with Mickey Mouse

In the Magic Kingdom, History Was a Lesson Filled With Reassurance

Fifty years ago, Disney World's celebrated opening promised joy and inspiration to all; today the theme park is reckoning with its white middle-class past.
Clay Shaw and two aides, holding up the newspaper announcing his acquittal. Copyright AP 1969.

The Homophobic Backdrop to Garrison’s Persecution of Clay Shaw

A review of "Cruising for Conspirators: How a New Orleans DA Prosecuted the Kennedy Assassination as a Sex Crime."
Lithograph of an armed mob attacking another group in the street.

The Philadelphia Bible Riots

The debate regarding which Bible kids should read in school was about whether Catholic immigrants should have the full rights of American citizenship.
Alan Krueger speaks during a press briefing at the White House.

Tragedy Kept Alan Krueger From Claiming a Nobel Prize, but He’s Not Forgotten

The economist, along with David Card, was instrumental in changing America’s mind about the minimum wage.
illustration of Joe Biden and upside-down Capitol building

Is a Democratic Wipeout Inevitable?

Even when the president’s party passes historic legislation, voters don’t seem to care.
A construction machine lifts giants stacks of paper money.

The U.S. Is Politically Bankrupt

For political reasons, powerful people don’t want the country to pay its bills. History shows all that could go wrong.
Two characters from “Grey’s Anatomy" sit against a wall.

How TV Lied About Abortion

For decades, dramatized plot lines about unwanted and unexpected pregnancies helped create our real-world abortion discourse.
TV with black and white video game on the screen

Computer Space Launched the Video Game Industry 50 Years Ago – Here's Why Haven't Heard of it

The game that launched today’s massive video game industry was not a roaring success. The oft-told story of why turns out to be off the mark.
Protest sign with Daily News front page "Ford to City: Drop Dead"

New York City’s State of Permanent Crisis

How New Yorkers trying to ward off catastrophe paved the road to the privatized city.
Neoclassical building with "South Dakota" carved on entablature
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When South Dakota Became the New Cayman Islands for Banks and Finance

One bank's desperation and a state's economic needs undermined regulations protecting consumers.
A black and white photo of historian Mae Ngai.

“We’ve Always Had Activists in Our Communities”

May Ngai uses her experiences as an activist in the 1980s and her research on the 19th century Chinese diaspora to debunk stereotypes about Chinese Americans.

The Hospital Occupation That Changed Public Health Care

The Young Lords took over Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx on July 14, 1970. Their demand? Accessible, quality health care for all.
Man standing on top of a phone booth, surrounded by rioters outside of city hall.

The Forgotten City Hall Riot

In 1992, thousands of drunken cops raged against the mayor of New York — leaving an indelible mark on the city’s likely next mayor.
Mitch McConnell

How Did the Senate End Up With Supermajority Gridlock?

The Constitution meant for Congress to pass bills by a simple majority. But the process has changed over the decades.
Photograph of an American Northwest forest.

The Long-Lost Tale of an 18th-Century Tsunami, as Told by Trees

Local evidence of the cataclysm has literally washed away over the years. But Oregon’s Douglas firs may have recorded clues deep in their tree rings.
Illustration of Elvis Presley and Big Mama Thornton

The Question of Cultural Appropriation

It’s more helpful to think about exploitation and disrespect than to define cultural “ownership.”

Neoliberalism Died of COVID. Long Live Neoliberalism!

How the predominant ideology of our time survived the pandemic.

The Troubling History of the Fight to Honor Leif Erikson—Not Columbus—as the Man Who 'Discovered America'

It wasn't simply a matter of getting the history right.
Elmwood Cemetery, where Henry Ellett, Alice Mitchell and Freda Ward are buried

A Deadly Introduction

Who was Henry Ellett? Looking at his grave you wouldn't know much about him.

Before Interstates, America Got Around on Interurbans

The fate of electrified “rural trolleys” at the beginning of 20th century could offer lessons for today’s train boosters.

Remembering Past Lessons about Structural Racism — Recentering Black Theorists of Health and Society

A look at African-American scholars' contributions to health disparity discourse.
Map of the Appalachian mountain range

The Making of Appalachian Mississippi

“Mississippi’s white Appalachians may have owned the earth, but they could never own the past.”
Vice President Harris and Pedro Brolo, Guatemala's minister of foreign affairs, wave at her arrival ceremony in Guatemala City on June 6.
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The Root Cause of Central American Migration? The United States.

The Biden administration risks rehashing decades of failed policy.
African American Women in Industry, 1939-1945.

Black Women, Sanderson Farms, and the Strike for Better Conditions

Derrion Arrington explains the strike against Sanderson Farms in Laurel, Mississippi.

Decolonize Hipsters

The history of hipsters is a not-so-secret history of race in the Atlantic world.

Who Was Tank Kee?

He wanted to be an ally of the Chinese immigrant. By pretending to be one himself.
Drawing of boy with bottle of bitters

The Bitter Truth About Bitters

A bottle of bitters from about 1918 had significant amounts of alcohol and lead—and not a trace of the supposed active ingredient.
Lithograph of a horse and four dead bison on the plains

How Yellowstone Was Saved by a Teddy Roosevelt Dinner Party and a Fake Photo in a Gun Magazine

Teddy Roosevelt made an unlikely alliance with George Bird Grinnell, and together they made efforts to stop poaching and conserve Yellowstone.
Outfielder Darryl Strawberry of the New York Mets in uniform with bat

MLB Could've Stopped Black Talent Drain But Didn't

Baseball’s failure to get out in front of the problem in the 1970s had real and lasting consequences.
A view of businesses on Flatbush Avenue

A Stroll Down Flatbush Avenue circa 1914

An interactive virtual stroll down Flatbush Avenue circa 1914, compiled from Subway Construction photos published by the NY Historical Society.
Picture of Richard Nixon from National Archive.

The Day That Richard Nixon Changed U.S. Economic Policy Forever

Fifty years ago, in response to rising inflation, he rejected several long-standing practices. His Keynesian turn holds lessons for today’s economy.
Sketch of Harlem reimagined

How a Harlem Skyrise Got Hijacked—and Forgotten

The fate of June Jordan’s visionary reimagining of Harlem shows that when it comes to Utopias, the key question is always: “Whose?”
Henrietta Rodman walking

How Teachers Won the Right to Get Pregnant

In the early twentieth century, teachers were prohibited from keeping their jobs after getting pregnant. Socialist feminists organized to change that.
President Madison ending the Embargo Act cartoon

James Madison and the Debilitating American Tendency to Make Everything About the Constitution

The U.S. Constitution was the reason for Madison and Hamilton's breakup.
Lithograph of Monongahela River bridge
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The Girders of Steel City's History

Pittsburgh as a symbol of America itself.
Man Ray looking through a frame.

Man Ray’s Slow Fade From the Limelight

Man Ray made art that looked like the future. How did he become a minor figure?
A mostly African American audience listens to a speaker at the 5th Pan-African Conference, 1945

The New Black Internationalism

The Movement for Black Lives has developed an incipient internationalist language and vision, with the potential to remap America’s place in the world.
Photo of Jefferson Davis

The Southern Slaveholders Dreamed of a Slaveholding Empire

Antebellum slaveholders weren't content with an economic and social system based on trafficking in human flesh in the South alone.
Painting of Lincoln and his cabinet by M.S. Carpenter, 1863.

Did the Constitution Pave the Way to Emancipation?

In his new book, The Crooked Path to Abolition, James Oakes argues that the Constitution was an antislavery document.
Rural front lawn with a Trump sign.
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Our Urban/Rural Political Divide is Both New — And Decades In The Making

Policies dating to the 1930s have helped shape the conflict defining today’s politics.
Left: Longfellow in His Study, by Worth Brehm, c. 1912. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Right: Dante Meditating on “The Divine Comedy”, by Jean-Jacques Feuchère, 1843.

As Far From Heaven as Possible

How Henry Wadsworth Longfellow interpreted Reconstruction by translating Dante.
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