Excerpts

Apparently some people communed with spirits to locate the first underground oil reserves.

From “The Old Farmer’s Almanac” to “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” what do bestselling guides to self-improvement reveal about the United States?

In the course of research about the Red Summer of 1919, a historian in Maine uncovers a disturbing event that took place on her own campus.

When African Americans allied themselves with the British, the Patriots were enraged, and they acted.

How racial hierarchies are embedded within the archival standards and practices that legitimize historical memory.

A new exhibition makes a powerful statement about the oversights of American history and America’s art history.

The restoration of the Air Force Academy Chapel is the U.S.’s most complex modernist preservation project ever.

The writer’s signature style of ending—a final, thrilling note—has the touch of magic that distinguishes the form at its best.

The history of racism, slavery and its impacts on American society is essential and appropriate for school history classes.

Trans Americans have taken to the courts for decades to fight against the notion that they are a threat.

Joni Mitchell might not have wanted to be the glamorous bard of women’s rising consciousness, but with “Blue,” she became just that.

The fight over the American Jobs Plan reflects a long history of competing visions of public works—and, most of all, who should benefit from rebuilding.

The incredible story of how a disgraced Civil War general became one of the best-selling novelists in American history.

A new creative history comes closer than ever to giving us access to Turner’s visionary life.

Wally Funk has been ready to become an astronaut for six decades.

For the Philippines, independence from the United States came with strings attached.

Fifty years later, The Yellow Pages stand as a testament to grassroots ingenuity and the radical idealism of '70s counterculture.

He helped build Jewish American support for Israel. What’s his legacy now?

After the discovery of 751 unmarked graves at the site of a former school for Native children in Canada, it is time to investigate similar abuses in the U.S.

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers on how her mother overcame voter suppression and became an activist in her community.

Failures in prosecuting German businesses who profited in Nazi Germany show how far Europe and America were willing to go to protect capitalism.

Charles Sumner and the fight for equal naturalization rights.

In a growing number of states, the GOP is pushing “Don’t Say Gay” laws to prevent students from learning about the triumphs and struggles of LGBTQ Americans.

A Vietnamese politician and an American academic led Michigan State University into a nation-building experiment and pulled America deeper into war.

As wartime labor shortages depleted police forces, and fear of crime grew, chiefs turned to new initiatives to strengthen and professionalize their officers.

A new PBS documentary investigates the legacy of one of the most dangerous pollutants on the planet, an unsettling cover-up, and the fight for accountability.

America’s worst secretary of defense never expressed a quiver of regret.

Marcy Sacks compares the increased desire for animal companions during the Civil War and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Seventy years after the civil preparedness film Duck and Cover, it's long past time to reckon with the way white supremacy shaped U.S. nuclear defense efforts.

The great bonfires of Gallows Hill—and what they tell us about America.

The famed economist’s theories were embraced by Beltway power brokers in both parties. Finally, a Democratic president is turning the page on a legacy of ruin.

By thinking of diseases just as medical problems, we allow them to fester in poor communities.

The 19th-century antecedent to today’s complaints of labor shortage.

Chronicling the policing of gay life in the mid-20th century.

While researching the history of racism in Silicon Valley, Lisa Nakamura is surprised to discover the Navajo Nation's role in the creation of the tech industry.

A landscape architect of the 1950s predicted that lady drivers would want pastel-colored pavement on the interstate.

On the intersectionality of enslaved women and common misunderstandings about slavery.

Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, and Jason Stanford on the making of a misrepresented narrative.

Tens of thousands of mutual aid networks and projects emerged around the world in 2020. They have long been a tool for marginalized groups.

Why did readers search for deeper meaning in the adventures of Snoopy and the gang?

W.E.B. DuBois, 100 years ago.

Photographer Andrew Feiler documented how the educational institutions shaped a generation of black leaders.

Hyphenation became a complex issue of identity, assimilation, and xenophobia amid anti-immigration movements at the turn of the twentieth century.

The White press helped destroy democracy in the South. Black journalists developed an activist tradition because they had to.

A new edition of Emily Dickinson’s Master letters highlights what remains blazingly intense and mysterious in her work.

How African Americans came to Indian Territory after the Civil War.

Upon discovering that her mother had been a member of the group Women Strike For Peace (WSP), Heidi Hutner becomes obsessed with feminist nuclear history.

For many of us, especially those who weren’t alive when it happened, we’re all watching that event through Zapruder’s lens.

On the Shakers and Catholics who found love and friendship in early America.

The rise of liberal religion in the United States.