Excerpts

During the AIDS crisis, different contingents of the LGBTQ movement set aside their differences to prioritize mutual care.

Until a century or so ago, almost no one lived alone; now many endure shutdowns and lockdowns on their own. How did modern life get so lonely?

Far from making Americans crave stability, the pandemic underscores how everything is up for grabs.

Expropriated Indigenous land is the foundation of the land-grant university system.

A new book looks at the lives of Jewish professors who sought asylum in the U.S. and were denied entry.

A review of "The Idealist: Wendell Willkie’s Wartime Quest to Build One World."

A look back at the so-called “Spanish Flu," how it affected the U.S., and why it’s often overlooked today.

The influenza pandemic did long-lasting damage to relationships in some American communities. Could the mistrust have been prevented?

People comparing covid-19 and AIDS may obscure more than they clarify.

Sarah Collins Rudolph survived the 1963 church bombing that killed her sister and three other girls. She's still waiting on restitution and an apology.

A story of quarantine.

Dorothy Thompson finds a room of her own.

This is not the first time that democratic governance appeared to be under assault.

At a time when questions about women's rights in marriage roiled society, women readers took to the pages of cheap books about husband-murdering wives.

When we mythologize the ’60s, we lose sight of what’s truly ahead of us.

Though the "electricity biscuit" thesis is plausible, killjoy historians need more evidence.

Past public health crises inspired innovations in infrastructure, education, fundraising and civic debate—and cleaned up animal carcasses from the streets.

In times of crisis, it has often been the wealthy who get bailed out.

A biographer of Day talks about what we can learn from the iconic activist.

Like so many black scientists past, the African who brought inoculation to the American colonies never got his due.

“America First” is a fairly useless strategy in the quest for a COVID-19 vaccine.

A new book chronicles the twists and turns of the 75-year-path to securing the vote for women.

A conversation with Breanne Fahs on the lasting lessons of women's anger.

How World Vision and Compassion International sparked an Oregon family to raise eight mixed-race children.

"Fool the Axis—use Prophylaxis!"In many ways, such a coordinated public effort to alter sexual behavior was unprecedented.

Although largely forgotten today, exercise by club swinging was all the rage in the 19th century.

Can experiencing elements of what is was like in the past make us better historians?

On the fixture of white yuppiedom and icon of post-ironic millennial hipsterdom.

How does the global effort to eradicate smallpox fit into the history of U.S.-Soviet relations?

But in 1862, the federal government doled out the 2020 equivalent of $23 million—not to the formerly enslaved but to their white enslavers.

Watchmen is a sophisticated inquiry into the ethical implications of its own form—the flash and bang, the prurience and violence of comic books.

Katherine Anne Porter’s ‘Pale Horse, Pale Rider’ tells the tale of a pandemic she barely survived.

“Either they’ve got no conscience, or they’re not awake to the gravity of the situation.”

Our thanks should be recognizing the crucial role they play in our society.

The terrifying, censored coverage of the 1918 Spanish flu.

While assisting businesses, Congress must also continue to help consumers.

History teaches us that prioritizing the economy could kill hundreds of thousands.

Has Trump plunged America into another Great Depression?

Until the mid-1800s, doctors didn’t bother washing their hands. Then a Hungarian medic made an essential, much-resisted breakthrough.

Why the battle for history must be won in the here and now.

Medical xenophobia has dangerous ramifications.

When it's safe to return, baseball can play a big role in uniting Americans and providing comfort.

Lessons from Crip Camp, a new documentary that explores the roots of the disability rights movement.

This is nothing like 2008. Or even 1914.

My whole life, my mother told me, ‘Always remember — you’re a Madison. You come from African slaves and a president.’

Restaurants have always been about more than feeding city residents. During the 1918 flu pandemic, they were kept open as sites of social solidarity.

Dr. Maurice Hilleman caught the 1957 flu when even the military and WHO couldn't.

Today's coronavirus pandemic has echoes in the yellow fever pandemic of the 1790s. Then, workers struggled with how to support themselves and their families.

The most important design object of our time was more than a century in the making.

Cholera maps chart the movement of the disease, and the terror that accompanied it.