Excerpts

In 1906, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Chicago to move forward with a spectacularly disgusting feat of modern engineering.

Samuel Freedman rereads 1975's "Blue-Collar Aristocrats."

Satellite images dating back to 1975 allow researchers to map how millions of cul-de-sacs and dead-ends have proliferated in street networks worldwide.

Ashley Boone Jr., the first black president of a major Hollywood studio, helped make Star Wars a hit, yet chances are you've never heard of him.

The results of the 1920 census kicked off a bitter, decadelong political squabble. Could the same happen again in 2020?

Six historians weigh in on the biggest misconceptions about black history, including the Tuskegee experiment and enslaved people’s finances.

The Editor of the American Historical Review weighs in on recent historiographical debates around the New York Times' 1619 Project.

Lincoln protected thousands of acres of California forest and wanted to restore the nation’s battle-ravaged countryside before he was assassinated.

How barbed wire sparked a cowboy war and changed the American West.

Another news cycle, another media mogul stirring up electoral buzz.

Clare Beams on women's bodies and the power of names.

The Astor Place Opera House Riot of 1849 combined two of 19th-century America’s favorite pastimes: going to the theater and rioting.

On September 1st, 1858, a mob stormed the New York Marine Hospital in Staten Island, and set fire to the building.

A new book asks why the left fell out of love with Zionism, but what it reveals is why liberal Zionists fell out of love with the left.

In 1959 there was a public debate on violence vs nonviolence in the pages of The Liberator magazine between Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Williams.

Nearly 60 years after FDR authorized the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, California plans to apologize for its role.

A newly minted celebrity to the world, the future president used his position to procure his preferred beast of burden from the king of Spain.

A look at the impeachment of Warren Hastings and the nature of American power.

Mikaella Clements on the role of baths in twentieth-century literature.

Rose Cleveland declared her passion for the woman she had a relationship with spanning three decades in letter after letter.

The story of a Black woman and a Mexican man who had lived as husband and wife in the 1840s in Texas.

The New Hampshire returns tell us a lot about the leading candidates.

But did they backfire?

Until the mid-20th century, Oregon was perhaps the most racist place outside the southern states, possibly even of all the states.

Colonial Williamsburg has acknowledged to the LGBTQ community that people like them “have always existed.”

The beloved Christmas short story may have been dashed off on deadline but its core message has endured.

Leila collects art that’s made of human hair and displays it to the public at a museum bearing her name in Independence, Missouri.

If kissing was deemed necessary during the flu pandemic, a handkerchief should be used to prevent direct contact with the lips.

While segregation was a shameful period in baseball history, the Negro Leagues were a resounding success and an immense source of pride for black America.

The revolution wasn’t only an effort to establish independence from the British—it was also a push to preserve slavery and suppress Native American resistance.

A digital exhibit from the collections of the Strong National Museum of Play.

When four black men staged at sit-in at a Greensboro Woolworth's 40 years ago, Charles Bess was the busboy.

Three decades ago, California was the launchpad for a virulent strain of anti-immigrant politics that soon spread nationwide.

The Great American Pyramid was supposed to give the Tennessee city an architectural landmark for the ages. Instead, it got a very large sporting goods store.

For decades, the CIA read the encrypted communications of allies and adversaries.

The most popular songs today are sadder than they were 50 years ago: can cultural evolution explain this negative turn?

The reality of the early gold-rush prospectors was not nearly as benevolent as the mascot’s wide smile may suggest.

Zadie Smith on Kara Walker, blackness and public art.

To fully understand what has gone wrong since 9/11, it is necessary to rewind the tape to that moment just before.

We investigated a dataset of more than 30,000 high school yearbook photos from 1930–2013 to find out when big hair was at its height.

Betrayal. Paranoia. Cowardice. We've been here before.

On the 30th anniversary, we can see that it was an ideological project, with the New Right reasserting the righteousness of militarism and markets.

If we want to fight capitalism, the US left has to figure out how to confront US empire.

George Kennan discusses the steps that are being taken in regards to the conflict with Iraq and questions President Bush's strategy.

As José Ferrer was being handed his Oscar—making him the first Latino actor to win—he was being investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Why Lincoln’s "one war at a time" doctrine saved the Union.

The way America is ending its War in Afghanistan is comparable to how it pulled out of the conflict in Vietnam.

Carter’s speech lays out his commitment to implement human rights into U.S. foreign policy.

President Clinton’s address revealed the strength of NATO and publicly signaled a post-Cold War shift in U.S. foreign policy.

Oscar night has become a platform for stars to pitch political causes.