Excerpts

Curated stories from around the web.
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A picture of a woman at a protest against Islamophobia.

The Most Patriotic Act

A warning from September 2001 about government overreach in the name of national security.
The illustration “Vaccinating the Poor,” by Solomon Eytinge Jr

The Surprisingly Strong Supreme Court Precedent Supporting Vaccine Mandates

In 1905, the high court made a fateful ruling with eerie parallels to today: One person’s liberty can’t trump everyone else’s.
Afghan children standing in rubble
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Invading Other Countries to ‘Help’ People Has Long Had Devastating Consequences

For more than a century, U.S. wars of invasion have claimed a humanitarian mantle.
A small business on Cortlandt Street in NYC

When Ground Zero was Radio Row

When City Radio opened on NYC's Cortlandt Street in 1921, radio was a novelty. Over the next few decades, hundreds of stores popped up in the neighborhood.
RFK speaking at the Ambassador Hotel in LA, moments before he was shot on June 5, 1968.

How Robert F. Kennedy’s Assassination Derailed American Politics

The idealistic presidential candidate was on the verge of seizing control of the 1968 race just as Sirhan Sirhan’s bullet struck.
Twin Towers at sunset

How To Remember Minoru Yamasaki’s Twin Towers

Remembered as symbols of strength after 9/11, the Twin Towers and their Japanese American architect were once criticized in racist and sexist terms.
A 9/11 memorial

Relic Steel

After 9/11, hundreds of pieces of steel debris were catalouged. Much of it ended up in small municipal memorials and in other locations around the country.
Demonstrators outside the New York City offices of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) on Aug. 31.
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The Supreme Court Ended The Eviction Ban But Not The Fight Against Evictions

Historically, the failures and limitations of federal policy have emboldened activists.
Woman holding a poster that says "ABORTION". AP Images

The Roe Baby

After decades of keeping her identity a secret, Jane Roe’s child has chosen to talk about her life.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

The Mastermind

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the making of 9/11.
Blood over image of Afghan security in Kabul

The War on Terror: 20 Years of Bloodshed and Delusion

From the beginning, the War on Terror merged red-hot vengeance with calculated opportunism. Millions are still paying the price.
A flag bearing the likeness of the former World Trade Center destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is flown at half-staff during a ceremony to place a time capsule and plaque outside the Oculus transit station to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on April 30 in New York.
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Twenty Years After 9/11, its Memorialization Remains Contested

Should 9/11 remembrances include the global war on terror?
Illustration of 9/11 inside outline of girl

The Children of 9/11 Are About to Vote

What the youngest cohort of American voters thinks about politics, fear and the potential of the country they’ve grown up in.
Students with masks walking in a school hallway.
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Schools Enforce Dress Codes All the Time. So Why Not Masks?

Dress codes are about social control, not student wellbeing.

50 Years After Attica, Prisoners Protest Brutal Conditions

If this nation hopes to achieve a justice system that is just, it must remain ever vigilant for any echo from Attica.

9/11 was a Test. The Books of the Last Two Decades Show How America Failed.

The books of the last two decades show how overreacting to the attacks unmade America’s values.
Pro-abortion protests
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Before Roe v. Wade, U.S. Residents Sought Safer Abortions in Mexico

Transnational networks have long helped pregnant people navigate treatment options.
US soldiers stand guard behind barbed wire as Afghans sit on a roadside near the military part of the airport in Kabul on August 20, 2021.

The US Lost in Afghanistan. But US Imperialism Isn’t Going Anywhere.

The US suffered grave losses in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we shouldn’t mistake revisions of US military strategy for a turn away from imperialist ambitions.
FDNY firefighters in WTC wreckage

What Gilles Peress Saw on 9/11

The Magnum photographer looks back on capturing an “inconceivable event.”
African American man teaching a boy to swim in a swimming pool.
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Black Swimmers Overcome Racism and Fear, Reclaiming a Tradition

Today, drowning rates are disproportionately high among Black children. What’s being done?

The Case Against Humane War

How the turn toward “precision” combat promoted endless war.
A man standing infront of a police line

The ‘Global Policeman’ Is Not Exempt From Justice

Confronting the violence of U.S. policing requires an international perspective.
Photo: "Mother Bird Protecting Her Young"

Motherhood at the End of the World

"My job as your mother is to tell you these stories differently, and to tell you other stories that don’t get told at school.”
Anti-vaccination pamphlets from the early 1900s

Vaccine Hesitancy in the 1920s

As Progressive Era reforms increased the power of government, organized opposition to vaccination campaigns took on a new life.
The front cover of Kevin Waite's, "West of Slavery: The Southern Dream of a Transcontinental Empire."

Desert Plantations

A review of “West of Slavery: The Southern Dream of a Transcontinental Empire."
Tarred as a “coolie race,” the Chinese were cast as a threat to free white labor. Train with fire around it and a face in the back.

America Was Eager for Chinese Immigrants. What Happened?

In the gold-rush era, ceremonial greetings swiftly gave way to bigotry and violence.
Black and white photo of the 1940 Chevrolet half-ton.

The Rugged History of the Pickup Truck

At first, it was all about hauling things we needed. Then the vehicle itself became the thing we wanted.

'Get Out Now' – Inside the White House on 9/11, According to the Staffers Who Were There

A top White House aide recounts her experiences that day.
Picture of George W. Bush

How Memories of Japanese American Imprisonment During WWII Guided the US Response to 9/11

In the wake of 9/11, some called for rounding up whole groups of people but Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta knew the U.S. had done that before.
President Obama in the Oval Office.

Pictures at a Restoration

On Pete Souza’s Obama.
QAnon proponent and Trump supporters

Bad Information

Conspiracy theories like QAnon are ultimately a social problem rather than a cognitive one. We should blame politics, not the faulty reasoning of individuals.

The Once and Future Temp

What can the history of the temp-work industry teach us about the precarity of modern working life?
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9/11 Heroes: Surviving the Biggest Attack on U.S. Soil

First responders who survived 9/11 don’t want the day to be forgotten.

Mother’s Friend: Birth Control in Nineteenth-Century America

How antebellum women prevented themselves from getting pregnant during an era when their identity was founded on being a mother.

Coat Hangers and Knitting Needles

A brief history of self-induced abortion.
Join or Die woodcut of a chopped up rattlesnake representing un-unified colonies.

The Serpents of Liberty

From the colonial period to the end of the US Civil War, the rattlesnake sssssssymbolized everything from evil to unity and power.
Six generations of Black women, portrait taken by R.W. Harrison in Selma, AL, 1893

Black Women and Civil War Pensions

At the intersection of gender and racial discrimination, Black widows struggled to get the compensation they deserved.
Pages from the Chicago Defender and Metropolitan News, twentieth century.

The World According to Sylvester Russell

The career and legacy of a Black critic who argued for the elevation of Black performance.
Drawing of Stranger Things main characters on bikes

Historicizing Dystopia: Suburban Fantastic Media and White Millennial Childhood

On the nostalgic and technophobic motives of the recent boom in suburban fantastic media.
Moscow COVID-19 vaccination center
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The U.S. and Russia Could Join Forces to Get People Vaccinated. They Did Before.

The forgotten history of Soviet-American vaccine diplomacy.
Head of a man with a severe disease affecting his face by Christopher D' Alton, 1858. One of a collection of drawings by D' Alton of patients at the Royal Free Hospital, Grays Inn Road, London.

The Ugly History of Chicago’s "Ugly Law"

In the nineteenth century, laws in many parts of the country prohibited "undeserving" disabled people from appearing in public.
A collage graphic featuring the couple from "American Gothic" at a cookout.

Labor Day in America: Or, the Day That is Not in May

America’s ambivalence about labor is nothing new. In the colonial era the ruling class had nothing but contempt for anything that could be justly called "work."
Photos of victims in the 9/11 museum

The 9/11 Museum and Its Discontents

A new documentary goes inside the battles that have riven the institution and shaped the historical legacy of the attack.
Afghan refugees at Dulles Airport

The Status of Refugees

Seventy years after the UN Refugee Convention, the United States should refresh its commitment to displaced people.
Family photo of a woman pulling a child on a sled down a snowy street.

My Grandmother's Desperate Choice

My questions about my grandmother's death – from a self-induced abortion – haven’t changed since I was 12. What feels new is the urgency of her story.
Woman recycling glass, Wallingford neighborhood, Seattle, Washington, 1990

You'll Never Believe Who Invented Curbside Recycling

Far from ushering in a zero-waste world, the switch from returnables to recycling provided cover for the creation of ever more packaging trash.
An astronaut on the moon with the MTV flag planted.

Watch the First Two Hours of MTV’s Inaugural Broadcast

MTV's 1981 broadcast was advertised to be as important as the moon landing.
Roberto Clemente at bat

Pittsburgh Pirates Mark 50 Years Since Historic All-Black-and-Latino Lineup

Players, fans and authors recall the landmark 1971 starting nine.

The Puritans Are Alright

A review of "Hot Protestants: A History of Puritanism in England and America."
Three women in swimsuits

Policing the Bodies of Women Athletes Is Nothing New

For women who play sports, there's often no way to win.
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