Excerpts

Curated stories from around the web.
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Why Historical Analogy Matters

If the idea of historical incommensurability is right, then analogical reasoning in history becomes an impossibility.

Nationalist Anthems

Remembering a time when composers mattered more.

Whose Boots on the Ground

We invest a great deal of collective energy in commemorating our war dead. But do we remember them?

The Pervasive Power of the Settler Mindset

More than simple racism, the destructive premise at the core of the American settler narrative is that freedom is built upon violent elimination.
Woman in 18th century dress and hairstyle.

Las Marthas

At a colonial debutante ball in Texas, girls wear 100 pound dresses and pretend to be Martha Washington. What does it mean to find yourself in the in-between?

How Race Made the Opioid Crisis

The fundamental division between “dope” and medicine has always been the race and class of users.

From the Battlefield to 'Little Women'

How Louisa May Alcott found a niche in observing the world around her.

Rambo Politics from Reagan to Trump

Trump links the assassination of Iranian General Soleimani to the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, positioning himself as Rambo, avenging American humiliation abroad.

Andrew Yang and the Failson Mystique

America has already witnessed the largest UBI experiment known to history — the postwar middle-class housewife. And she was utterly miserable.

Walking with the Ghosts of Black Los Angeles

"You can't disentangle blackness and California."

The Strange Career of ‘National Security’

When the phrase became a national obsession, it turned everything from trade rules to dating apps into a potential threat.
Malcolm X

Reflections on Malcom X

What we can learn from him and his legacy.

A Parade of Imperial Presidencies

Trump is just the latest in a long line of executives to stiff-arm the Constitution and ignore congressional powers.

Why Disco Made Pop Songs Longer

Disco, DJs, and the impact of the 12-inch single.

When King was Dangerous

He's remembered as a person of conscience who carefully broke unjust laws. But his challenges to state authority place him in a much different tradition: radical labor activism.

Finding Lena, the Patron Saint of JPEGs

In 1972, a photo of a Swedish Playboy model was used to create the JPEG. The model herself was mostly a mystery—until now.

This, Too, Was History

The battle over police-torture and reparations in Chicago’s schools.
partner

The Whistleblowers of the My Lai Massacre

Three men who brought the terrors of My Lai to light.
A man shovels out the parking lot of an old factory buildingcovered in graffiti.
partner

How a 50-Year-Old Study Was Misconstrued to Create Destructive Broken-Windows Policing

The harmful policy was built on a shaky foundation.

A New Database Will Connect Billions of Historic Records to Tell the Full Story of American Slavery

The online resource will offer vital details about the toll wrought on the enslaved.

The Asian-American Canon Breakers

Proudly embracing their role as outsiders, a group of writer-activists set out to create a cultural identity—and a literature—of their own.

Land of the Free

The story of America is precisely the heroic story of pioneers who bring the American ideal again and again to the West.

All Good Things Must Begin

On the self-preservation, testimonies, and solace found in the diaries of black women writers.

Tremendous in His Wrath

A review of the most detailed examination yet published of slavery at Mount Vernon.

Before And After

The allegations against Michael Jackson make listening to his songs a struggle, one that resists the comfort those songs once provided.

What Should a Slavery Epic Do?

If there’s anything the 2010s taught us, it’s that there is no getting these stories right, no honoring with grace the dead and ghosts.

America Is Now the Divided Republic the Framers Feared

John Adams worried that “a division of the republic into two great parties … is to be dreaded as the great political evil.”

It's 2020 and You're in the Future

Some people are young, just not you.

40 Years Ago: A Look Back at 1977

A visual trip back in time to 1977.
Hands holding vials of chemicals.

The Empire’s Amnesia

When it comes to imperialism, Latin America never forgets, and the United States never remembers.

The Infinity War

We say we’re a peaceful nation. Why do our leaders always keep us at war?

Jimmy Carter Toasts the Shah

The Shah’s reign witnessed years of oppression against the Iranian people, and Carter’s toast added fuel to the fire.
Iranian woman, dressed in black, walking past mural reading "Down With USA."

Iran and America: A Forgotten Friendship

As President Trump’s rhetoric against Iran heats up, it's worth recalling a time when the two countries had a different relationship.

The United States Overthrew Iran’s Last Democratic Leader

Archival records make clear that the U.S. government was the key actor in the 1953 coup that ousted Mohammad Mosaddeq—not the Iranian clergy.

A Personal Act of Reparation

The long aftermath of a North Carolina man’s decision to deed a plot of land to his former slaves.

Madison’s Notes Don’t Mean What Everyone Says They Mean

The Founding Father’s account of the Constitutional Convention includes a famous conversation about causes for impeachment.

The Old Internet Died And We Watched And Did Nothing

It’s 2020 — do you know where your content is?

The Decade America Terrorized Itself

The next 9/11 never came. Instead, we got Sandy Hook, and Las Vegas, and Parkland…
Drawing of Puritans.

How Should We Remember the Puritans?

In his new book, Daniel Rodgers not only offers a close reading of Puritan history but also seeks to rescue their early critique of market economy.
Dictionary definition for "they."

The Rightness of the Singular ‘They’

This year, Merriam-Webster added a new definition to the word “they”: “used to refer to a single person whose gender identity is nonbinary.”

Disinfo Redux

Wherever there has been power, there has been a struggle for narrative control.
Skeletons in situ at Avery's rest.

DNA Analysis From Colonial Delaware Skeletons Reveals Beginning Of American Slave Trade

A new DNA study of skeletons from a farmstead on the Delaware frontier has revealed key information about the early transatlantic slave trade.

The Fight Over the 1619 Project Is Not About the Facts

A dispute between some scholars and the authors of NYT Magazine’s issue on slavery represents a fundamental disagreement over the trajectory of U.S. society.
St. Augustine

Forget What You Know About 1619, Historians Say. Slavery Began a Half Century Before Jamestown

African slaves had been in Florida 54 years before they arrived in Jamestown, Virginia. One historian says the 1619 narrative 'robs black history.'

Historians' Statement on the Impeachment of President Trump

Over 1000 historians have signed this statement condemning President Trump's actions.

Losing Ourselves in Holiday Windows

Nostalgia has always been harnessed or packaged to sell things.
Portrait of Charles Dickens from his 1842 trip to America.

Charles Dickens Had Serious Beef with America and Its Bad Manners

How Charles Dickens' unpleasant trip to Boston led to "A Christmas Carol."

When Santa Claus Was Deplored in Wartime

The modern image of Santa Claus first appeared in a Civil War illustration, and it wasn’t the last time St. Nick was deployed in wartime.

Fandom: A Star Wars Story

This is about much more than Star Wars—it is about media bias and "information disorder" in the twenty-first century.

To Be Mary MacLane

In the early twentieth century, Mary MacLane’s genre-defying books earned the scorn of critics and the adoration of readers across the nation.
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