Excerpts

Trader Joe’s stocks an aggressively American version of the Dutch pastry, turning it into a beloved holiday staple nationwide.

How a federal policy change in the 1980s created the modern food desert.

When religion became the veil for racial violence in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

A look at this iconic salad’s origin story and its evolution into a cornerstone of accessible American cooking.

A new California bill would commemorate 'a dark part of our American history' known as the Mexican 'repatriation' of the 1930s.

Americans’ enthusiasm for reheating last night’s dinner has faded as the nation has prospered.

The history of a familiar, useful, and troublesome object.

Walter Camp praised the sport as a way to toughen up élite young white men. Despite changes to the game and society, his legacy remains.

The “Indian peach” survived a genocide—but can it withstand climate change?

During the Little Ice Age, Native North Americans devised whole new economic, social, and political structures.

Many of today's most influential right-wing tactics and arguments have their roots in 1960s-era college campuses.

Glenn Fleishman’s history of the comic strip as a technological artifact vividly restores the world of newspaper printing—gamboge, Zip-A-Tone, flongs, and all.

Connie Hawkins overcame scandal and setbacks to star for the Pittsburgh Pipers, leading them to an ABA title, paving the way for NBA reforms.

A new release of an 1891 song by Louis Vasnier deepens what we know about the genre’s origins.

You’ve got one unsung editor to thank for many of your all-time favorite recipes.

The inventor, philosopher, and elder statesman of the American Revolution never gave up on his first love — publishing.

Robin Blackburn’s sweeping history of slavery and freedom in the 19th century.

A selection of radio and television programs that reinforce or reject stereotypes, and Native-created media that responds to those depictions.

A failed quest to rename the famed school desegregation case for the South Carolina family who filed first is about more than legal recognition.

History books are rewritten to focus on the underdog. Surely that is a victory for the common people...or is it?

Almost 1,300 people say the state of New Hampshire failed to act to protect them from child abuse at youth facilities. Here’s what the allegations reveal.

The symbols sported by Trump’s defense pick show how the medieval past is being reimagined by Christian nationalists, behind a shield of plausible deniability.

After 170 years of armed attacks, forced relocations, ethnic cleansing, and genocide of Native Americans, the U.S. military wants to celebrate.

Using Murray Rothbard vs. Sam Francis to understand the next administration.

What a long-dead, cartoonishly corrupt Texas bureaucrat can tell us about the nature of immigration enforcement and the U.S.-Mexico divide.

The originalist revolution will never be complete until we fully appreciate the natural law roots of the common law.

The U.S., Nicaragua, and the International Court of Justice in the 1980s.

How geology shaped American culture.

The actress, screenwriter, and novelist’s reviews and essays from 1918-19 display a comprehensive grasp of movie art and a visionary sense of its future.

A new history of the CPUSA reads like a Cold War throwback.

Fire!! was a pathbreaking showcase for Black artists and writers “ready to emotionally serve a new day and a new generation.”

“The Golden Girls” reframed senior life as being about socializing and sex. But did the cultural narrative of advanced age as continued youth go too far?

How a Michigan vacation town transformed the sweet into a nationwide tourist attraction.

A comprehensive new study found that the socioeconomic makeup of highly selective colleges is roughly the same as it was a century ago.

It made American pies rich and indulgent.

A new book celebrates an American political dynasty dedicated to public service. Why have they been forgotten?

A tradition as American as apple pie, and older than the Constitution.

The bland appeal of the Broad Breasted White.

The Civil War was the deadliest conflict in US history. However, incomplete records have made it difficult to estimate the exact death toll.

From early New England to the present day, censors have acted out of fear, not prudishness.

Explore the groundbreaking career of the first Black woman to seek the U.S. presidency.

What was “exceptional” about the American Revolution wasn’t so much the creation of a single republic but the immediate opportunity it provided for action.

In the 19th century, pumpkin pie ignited a culture war.

Neil Postman’s jeremiad against TV seems rather quaint today—and not just because he was shouting into the wind and knew it.

The financial world is a theatrical production, abundantly lubricated by that magical elixir of illusionists: confidence.

How the Chinese community of Tacoma, Washington Territory was violently expelled in 1885, and what happened next.

This tale of two girlhoods, Shirley Temple’s and Lindsay Lohan’s, sheds light on what “woman” means in the world of eroticized youth.

There’s more talk of decolonisation than ever, while true independence for former colonies has faded from view. Why?

The Civil War's vast death toll joined Earth's deep time story, magnifying its meaning as part of God's creative acts across eons.

A set of peculiarly American anxieties has spread across continents.