Excerpts

An hour of stories about a few high-stakes inaugurations from the past.

Devon Price wonders why we equate sloth with evil.

41 men are still being held without charges, without a way to leave, without homes to return to.

A new history of five heroes of the revolutionary period considers the power and instability of charismatic leadership.

Implications for public record and legal proceedings after administration seized or destroyed papers, notes and other information.

It forced a conversation about the dangers of misinformation, one we need to have again today.

Radio Diaries tells the story behind those infamous words, and the man who delivered them.

John F. Kennedy's 1961 inaugural address remains one of the most famous presidential speeches.

Was Abraham Lincoln's the most tumultuous presidential transition in American history?

A genealogist takes a closer look at Joe Biden's family history.

What variables make a woman's inclusion in history more likely?

The definitive story of Wikipedia on its 20th anniversary.

The selection of African American Sen. Hiram Revels in 1870 offered great hope — but it was soon dashed.

In pardoning Nixon, the 38th president opened the floodgates to boundless executive power.

How 150 years of apocalyptic agitation culminated in an insurrection.

Ninety-six years after the book's publication, the characters of "The Great Gatsby" continue to mesmerize readers.

It’s not enough to bring the articles of impeachment against an official – you have to convict them, too.

A history of the United States shifting the financial burden of emancipation onto enslaved people.

Reconsidering Septima Clark’s life challenges many of our ideas about the Civil Rights Movement and women's roles in it.

From COINTELPRO to the NSA’s surveillance program, the US Government has been keeping a close watch on the American Left for a long time.

On the trail to Montgomery.

The ironies abound in the story of Reed, who made it possible to erect the statue that remains on the top of the Capitol dome today.

Since the end of the Confederacy, the cult of the “taxpayer” has provided a socially acceptable veneer for racist attacks on democracy.

The 19th-century whale hunt was a brutal business. But between the frantic calls of “there she blows!”, there was plenty of time for creation too.

Gwenyth Loose on the women who defied all expectations.

What happened on January 6 was profoundly American, emerging as it did from our long and very specific history. No one did this to us.

Some supporters of the violent mob scene at the Capitol proclaimed it was the beginning of a “Second American Revolution.”

Many of us are unaware of the special circumstances that eased our entry into American life—and of the bonds we share with other nonwhite groups.

A new history shows how the glut of US military bases abroad has led to a constant state of military conflict.

What the troubled history of telecommuting tells us about its future.

David Zucchino on the white supremacist plot to take over Wilmington, North Carolina.

As the country scrambles to distribute COVID-19 vaccines, the process has been hindered by many of the same issues that impeded other mass vaccination rollouts.

Invoking the specter of voter fraud to undermine democratic participation is a tactic as old as the United States itself.

Misunderstood historical imagery at the January 6 Capitol insurrection.

The bizarre sanitarium staple that became a spreadable obsession.

A Trump-Biden transition is sure to be scary. But it’d be hard to beat Buchanan-Lincoln.

Reflections on Alexander Hamilton, Alexis de Tocqueville, and the power of the presidency.

An image from the Capitol captures the distance between who we purport to be and who we have actually been.

But the belief that America previously had a well-functioning democracy is an illusion.

What began as a protest, rally, and march ended as something altogether different—a day of anarchy that challenges the terminology of history.

True democracy in America is a young, fragile experiment that must be defended if it is to endure.

Commitment to racial justice, not conciliation, is needed to save democracy.

While Wednesday's images shocked us, they fit into our history.

The story of the democratic movements that the framers of the U.S. Constitution feared and sought to suppress.

The rioters at the Capitol are part of an unbroken American tradition. Sweet talk about our “better angels” did not defeat them before and will not now.

We don't know which images will become emblematic of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations, but past movements have shown the dangers of a singular narrative.

Nick Tilsen was arrested for protesting President Trump at Mount Rushmore. Now, his legal troubles are part of a legacy.

The Texas senator claims to be moved by the spirit of 1876, but he’s just another huckster playing a risky game with democracy.

Jefferson revised the Gospels to make Jesus more reasonable, and lost the power of his story.

Born enslaved, he was elected to Congress in the wake of the Civil War. But the impact of this momentous step in U.S. race relationships did not last long.