Excerpts

Curated stories from around the web.
New on Bunk
Postcard depicting the Montefiore Hospital in Pittsburgh

The Rise of Healthcare in Steel City

On deindustrialization, the care economy, and the living legacies of the industrial workers’ movement.
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

The Poetics of Abolition

For poet Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, as for the Black Romantics, history is the repetition of anti-Black violence that has yet to be abolished.
Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia
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How the Rise of Urban Nonprofits Has Exacerbated Poverty

While "meds and eds" have powered urban economies, they haven't been the gateway out of poverty that many hoped.
Senator Chuck Schumer walking to the Senate floor through a room filled with cots in preparation for an all-night debate in an attempt to break a Republican filibuster, July 2007

Can the Senate Restore Majority Rule?

The filibuster, invented to uphold slavery, must be eliminated if Democrats hope to deliver progressive legislation.
Tyler Stovall and his book

The History of Freedom Is a History of Whiteness

A conversation about whether or not the legacy of liberty can break away from racial exclusion and domination.
Equal Rights Amendment supporters cheer for the passage of the House ERA Resolution at the Capitol in Richmond, VA
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2021 Could Finally Be the Moment for the Equal Rights Amendment

The turmoil of the coronavirus pandemic could push the amendment across the finish line after a century of work.
Senator Joe Manchin III walks through the U.S. Capitol.
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For 100 Years, the Filibuster Has Been Used to Deny Black Rights

The most significant impact of the Senate’s super majority rules.
Mark McGwire baseball card

Neoliberalism with a Stick of Gum: The Meaning of the 1980s Baseball Card Boom

Before beanie babies and Pogs, small rectangles of cardboard were the errant investments of a stratifying American society.
Person kneeling with a Trump flag tied to their back, in front of a large wooden cross during the Capitol Siege

How the Study of Evangelicalism Has Blinded Us to the Problems in Evangelical Culture

Are the evangelicals who voted for Trump and stormed the Capitol in his defense part of the fringe of evangelicalism, or the core?
Man holding up a sign during the Capitol Siege

The Post-Trump Crack-Up of the Evangelical Community

Its embrace of an ignominious president is forcing a long-overdue reckoning with the movement’s embrace of white supremacy and illiberal politics.
Drawing of Speedy Gonzales

Why Do So Many Mexican Americans Defend Speedy Gonzales?

A stereotype? Definitely. Problematic? You bet. But many Mexican Americans still love the cartoon character.
Civil Rights Act Filibuster, Washington, DC, 1964

The Filibuster, Aaron Burr, and Mitch McConnell

Just because the filibuster wasn't created to promote racial slavery doesn't mean there’s no good argument against it.
A print featuring fish that look like the American flag.

Propagating Propaganda

Toward the end of WWI, as the U.S. peddled Liberty Bonds, a goldfish dealer bred a stars-and-stripes-colored carp: a living, swimming embodiment of patriotism.
Lady Bird Johnson looking through stack of papers at a desk

The Lost Story of Lady Bird

Why do most chroniclers of LBJ’s presidency miss the centrality and influence of the first lady?
Man walking though flood in Chicago

Redlined, Now Flooding

Maps of historic housing discrimination show how neighborhoods that suffered redlining in the 1930s face a far higher risk of flooding today.
Cotton Mather.

The Hellfire Preacher Who Promoted Inoculation

Three hundred years ago, Cotton Mather starred in a debate about treating smallpox that tore Boston apart.
Bathroom scales

The Completely Bonkers History of the Bathroom Scale

A century ago, few Americans had any idea how much they weighed. Here’s why that changed so dramatically.
A collage of Black and Asian people with an upside down American flag in the background

How Racism and White Supremacy Fueled a Black-Asian Divide in America

After a recent surge in anti-Asian attacks, the narrative quickly turned to hostilities between Black and Asian American communities.
Repairs being made at the site of a water main break
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What Early American Infrastructure Politics Can Teach the Biden Administration

Infrastructure plans are always political. The key is being inclusive and focusing on the public good.
photo of Otto Kerner with quote: "freedom for every citizen to live and work according to his capacities and not his color"

We Were Warned About a Divided America 50 Years Ago. We Ignored the Signs

As in the 1960s, the nation today stands at a turning point.
A 1951 meeting between ADL leadership and Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion.

The Anti-Democratic Origins of the Jewish Establishment

The history of the ADL and AJC reveals that they were created to consolidate the power of wealthy men and stifle the grassroots left.
illustration of a traditional housewife in the kitchen, baking for her husband

No, Rush Limbaugh Did Not Hijack Your Parents’ Christianity

White evangelicals have long been attracted to the conservative media's militant politics and regressive gender roles.
Collection of People's 50 most beautiful people magazines

Inside the Making of People's Iconic '50 Most Beautiful' Issue

Before People was the juggernaut of the celebrity media, it was a magazine “about people.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks during a news conference in Austin
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Though Often Mythologized, the Texas Rangers Have an Ugly History of Brutality

Teaching accurate history about white supremacy may be painful, but it's essential.
A movie still featuring a close-up of two actors from The Age of Innocence

The Age of Innocence: How a US Classic Defined Its Era

Cameron Laux looks at how The Age of Innocence – published 100 years ago – marked a pivotal moment in US history.
'Hanging of the San Patricios following the Battle of Chapultepec' by Samuel E. Chamberlain

During the Mexican-American War Irish-Americans Fought for Mexico in the 'Saint Patrick's Battalion'

Anti-Catholic sentiment in the States gave men like John Riley little reason to continue to pay allegiance to the stars and stripes.
Engraving of Harriet Beecher Stowe in profile.

How the Camera Introduced Americans to Their Heroines

A new show at the National Portrait Gallery spotlights figures including Harriet Beecher Stowe, Lucretia Mott and Margaret Fuller.
Photograph of murder victim by Weegee.

The Lost World of Weegee

Depression-era Americans viewed urban life in America through the lens of Weegee’s camera.
A television news reporter in a segment from the 1990s on juvenile crime

Superpredator

The media myth that demonized a generation of Black youth.
Teenagers from PAL take part in “Commissioner for A Day” on February 18, 1969

Rivalry in the Trenches

Philadelphia’s PAL and the Black Panther Party’s efforts to mold black youth into their own image.
The Trump family at a public event

Why is the Nationalist Right Hallucinating a ‘Communist Enemy’?

Reactionary leaders are invoking communism as a way of attacking the left, says author and activist Richard Seymour.
1886 British Empire Map

Fascism and Analogies — British and American, Past and Present

The past has habitually been repurposed in a manner inhibiting ethical accountability in the present.

Segregated by Design

The forgotten history of how our governments unconstitutionally segregated this country.

The Idea of a Nation

The idea of a modern nation is both confusing and conflicting. And as the world confronts the current global health crisis, its weaknesses become more apparent.

Re-watching ‘The Civil War’ During the Breonna Taylor and George Floyd Protests

The landmark Ken Burns documentary hasn’t aged well. But it continues to shape American perceptions about the Confederacy and slavery.
A map showing the path of the 1772 hurricane through the Caribbean.

Inside the Hurricane That Drove Alexander Hamilton to America

The young Founder’s evocative account of the tempest inspired people to send him to the Colonies for a formal education.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks during coronavirus briefing
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Cities and States Need Aid — But Also Oversight

Federal funding during and after the New Deal ended up hurting cities because of who spent it and how.
Thomas Piketty

Thomas Piketty Takes On the Ideology of Inequality

In his sweeping new history, the economist systematically demolishes the conceit that extreme inequality is our destiny, rather than our choice.
Photograph of Sun Ra by Ming Smith

Sun Ra: ‘I’m Everything and Nothing’

Sun Ra, a seminal artist of afrofuturism, embraced a unique vision of blackness.

The History of the “Riot” Report

How government commissions became alibis for inaction.
Senator Joe Manchin
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History Reveals That Getting Rid of the Filibuster is the Only Option

Reforms have only made obstruction the Founders never intended worse.
Elizabeth Catte and her book

'Pure America': Eugenics Past and Present

Historian Elizabeth Catte traces the history and influence of eugenics from her backyard across the country.

The Women Who Contributed to Science but Were Buried in Footnotes

In a new study, researchers uncovered female programmers who made important but unrecognized contributions to genetics.

Putting Women Back Where They Belong: In Federalism and the U.S. History Survey

Looking to the local level showcases how women claimed their rights in Early America.
Activists holding a banner saying "STOP ASIAN HATE"
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Violence Against Asian Americans Is Part of a Troubling Pattern

Recognizing that is crucial to ending the violence and the hate driving it.
Benito Mussolini.

The Americans Who Embraced Mussolini

As we confront rightwing extremism in our own time, the history of American fascist sympathy reveals a legacy worth reckoning with.
Caribou at the Arctic Refuge.
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Indigenous Advocacy Transformed the Fight Over Oil Drilling in the Arctic Refuge

Racial justice is now as much a part of the debate as environmentalism vs. oil drilling.
James Baker and Jimmy Carter.

Why Republicans Won’t Shut Up About a 16-Year-Old Bipartisan Report on Election Reform

The Carter-Baker report was intended to strengthen Americans’ trust in the electoral process. It’s become a weapon for right-wing attacks on voting rights.
Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the Social Security Act with Frances Perkins behind him.

The Woman Who Helped a President Change America During His First 100 Days

Frances Perkins was the first female Cabinet secretary in U.S. history, paving the way for the record number of women serving in President Biden’s Cabinet.
Joe Biden.
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The History of Using Computers to Distribute Benefits Like Biden’s Relief Checks

Technology can break down, but just as often with government tech, glitches are rooted in policy failures.
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