Excerpts

As a diagnosis, it’s too vague to be helpful—but its rise tells us a lot about the way we work.

The “great replacement theory” is nothing new.

A new book tells the forgotten story of fugitive slaves who found freedom south of the border.

The roots of “protecting children” in U.S. political rhetoric lie in efforts to defend white supremacy.

I can’t ignore what this country has done to Black people. How do I find my place in it?

Americans have always been deeply divided.

How the radical documentarians of the Workers' Film and Photo League put their art in the service of social movements.

How 1980s MTV helped my students understand the Cold War.

New Harmony has attracted eccentric spiritual groups, social reformers, intellectuals, and artists.

Detroit police killed hundreds of unarmed Blacks during the civil rights movement. Their ability to get away with it shows why most proposals for police reform are bound to fail.

To our surprise, most received a well-rounded education on the history of Black people in America. Just kidding.

A story about dogs used to fight in World War II and what became of them.

Disney gets inventive when they need to circumvent white people’s historical responsibility for genocidal atrocities — and queerness is a useful scapegoat.

The first volume of Frederik Logevall’s biography of JFK reveals the scope of his ambition and the weakness of his political commitments.

The wealthy textile manufacturer harbored ambitions that went far beyond the well-being of his own workforce and depleted his fortune.

A conversation between a historian and the creator of a new documentary short about NRA leader Harlon Carter.

Dispelling myths of entrepreneurial exceptionalism, a sweeping new history of U.S. capitalism finds that economic gains have always been driven by the state.

How culture fueled the infamous police decision.

An ancient concept, asylum has become just another political tool in the hands of our government.

The tales of the three fallen senators, as well as some other notable beefs in history.

For centuries, stories of Black communities have been limited by racism in the historical record. Now we can finally follow the trails they left behind.

Innocent, passive, apolitical: after the Holocaust, the standard for ‘true’ victimhood has worked to justify total war.

The Jewish Tin Pan Alley composer who wrote ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’ had never been to a ballgame.

Could the separation of the Revolutionary War have been patched in the late 19th century? Some powerful men tried...

An ongoing trial is bringing atrocities to light.

An infamous Republican political operative’s unpublished memoir shows how the Party came to embrace lies, racial fearmongering, and winning at any cost.

Support for and opposition to the ERA are not positions that are fundamentally tied to either conservatism or liberalism.

The Lincolns had four sons. Mary buried three of them. A new exhibit at President Lincoln's Cottage sheds light on bereaved parents, then and now.

The history of Atlanta's first Civil War monument may reveal how to deal with them in the present.

Colescott satirizes an iconic painting of George Washington, and in doing so, challenges the viewer to reconsider their beliefs about American history.

In 1898, the US emerged with a profitable jewel in its colonial crown.

A brave band of scholars set out to save us from racism and sexism. What happened?

In modern democracies, who gets to determine what counts as truth—an elite of experts or the people as a whole?

Overshadowed by more famous contemporaries, the visionary behind “The Wonder Show of the Universe” left a far-reaching legacy.

During the Cold War, nuclear weapons were a frequent plot point on television shows. Fearful depictions in the 1950's became more darkly comedic in the 1960s.

A bizarre episode in circus history became an unlikely forum for discussing 19th-century theories of race.

American fiction of the 19th century often featured a cruel doctor, whose unfeeling fascination with bodily suffering readers found unnerving.

Jeanna Kadlec considers Anne Lister, the center figure of HBO’s Gentleman Jack, and the influence of other preceding queer women.

The Doomsday Clock is set to two minutes to midnight. So why don't we make movies about nuclear war anymore?

A Lippincott Library collection shows how, during World War II, companies highlighted their war contributions via annual reports.

Submarines played a major role in WW I. But the first submersible was actually used, unsuccessfully, in the Revolutionary War.

Rikers Island jails were supposed to be the more humane model when they were built. New York City has the same lofty goals as it plans Rikers’ replacements.

American System-Built Homes in Chicago (and elsewhere).

As the 2020 presidential election nears, internationalists are plotting their return. But they still haven’t learned from the failure of liberal universalism.

Atlantic writer William Phillips conducted three interviews with Brown before Brown's fateful raid on Harper's Ferry.

Everything you knew about mass incarceration is wrong.

In the period immediately following World War II, the femme fatale embodied a host of male anxieties about gender roles.

In segregated units set up under the Federal Theatre Project, African American artists took on work usually reserved for whites and wrote radical dramas.

Schools closed, handshaking ceased and people wore handkerchiefs over their faces as the virus ravaged what was then the nation’s capital.

What is the role of artists in a crisis?