Excerpts

Mexican-American workers have a long tradition of radical organizing, stretching back to the days of the IWW and the mid-century Communist Party.

Louisiana’s petroleum industry profits from exploiting historic inequalities, showing how slavery laid the groundwork for environmental racism.

For some Americans, history isn’t the story of what actually happened; it’s the story they want to believe.

Organizing and advocacy are key when confronting bigotry.

The theory, drawing the ire of the right, can help us understand our past.

Fixating on Black vaccine skepticism obscures a rich history of Black medical and scientific innovation.

A Virginia congressman has filed a bill to make the swamp a National Heritage Site.

Reflections on "A Love Supreme," artistic transformation, and the Black Arts Movement.

Lovejoy, who ran a weekly paper called the Observer, was repeatedly targeted by mobs over his persistent writings against slavery.

America’s bold response to the Soviet Union depended on an unknown spy agency operative whose story can at last be told.

A prominent intellectual and naturalist, the Maryland native wrote extensively on natural phenomena and anti-slavery causes.

How does Black food go viral among white folks?

The filing cabinet was critical to the information infrastructure of 20th-century nation states and financial systems.

For care in pregnancy and childbirth, Black parents are turning to a traditional practice.

Mark Bittman’s new history looks at the economy and politics of junk food.

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.