Excerpts

The black men who formed America’s original paramedic corps wanted to make history and save lives—starting with their own.

1776 began as a petty squabble among odious and powerful elites. It soon became the lodestar of emancipatory movements everywhere.

The Declaration of Independence advocates for liberty and equality. We would do well to remember those principles today.

The storied African American newspaper will switch to a digital-only platform starting July 11.

Nostalgia or nightmare?

White liberals opposed segregation in the South, but fought tooth-and-nail to keep it in the North.

The declaration's words and sentiments have inspired nations and movements around the world.

If the British had won the Revolutionary War, things might be very different for Native Americans.

White supremacists are co-opting the Middle Ages. Fighting back requires us to tell better, fuller stories about the period.

The Trump administration’s commitment to deterring immigration through cruelty has made horrifying conditions in there inevitable.

What happened to the great defender of Empire when he settled in the States?

Past defeats still scare older Democratic leaders — but not the younger generation.

How the term "blog" came into being.

The seashore used to be a scary place, then it became a place of respite and vacation. What happened?

Here’s how the Black Hills Pioneer reported on major events in the HBO series.

Led by African American women, the strike inspired legislation that affected the entire nation.

Amy Kaplan’s new book examines the pioneering cultural myths that have tied Israel and the United States together.

Adam Chandler’s new book explores the intersection between fast food and U.S. history.

Frank Malina's scientific dreams were as radical as his politics.

The context and aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to kill the Civil Rights Act of 1875.

In both cases, false confessions were used against a group of black men with only precarious links to one another.

The question is which vision of America it’s being used to advance.

The Boston Symphony’s refusal to play the national anthem in its one concerts triggered a xenophobic panic that led an arrest.

Contrary to what Clarence Thomas recently claimed, eugenicists never favored abortion as a means of population control.

Power comes before freedom, not the other way around.

"Honor America Day" was designed to showcase support for President Nixon at a time of bitter division.

It took decades for the "flag cult" as we know it to get rolling.

How was the Fourth of July celebrated during the Revolutionary War?

Supreme Court decisions have practical consequences, which justices too often blithely ignore.

White nationalists have long used the holiday to advance their dreams of a white country.

Or everything that came before Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus walked down that “Old Town Road.”

And why we need another one.

Fifty years after Jazzercise was founded, it is still shaping how Americans work out—for better or for worse.

Some kind, some weird, some unbelievably harsh.

At what point does resistance become the only choice?

Networks of activists transformed Stonewall from an isolated event into a turning point in the struggle for gay power.

And why the Democrats can’t use it against him.

Fifty years after Stonewall, the gay-panic defense seems absurd. But, for decades, it had the power of law.

The New York Times should have done a better job fact-checking Appiah’s essay. Philosophy may be allegorical. History isn’t.

It was everywhere at the turn of the 20th century. It was also inedible.

Is Trump's power as president becoming just what the Founders feared?

Pointe du Hoc’s importance as a military objective has become the subject of heated debate as the invasion’s anniversary approaches.

Virginia engaged in “the most public, focused, and sustained discussion of slavery and emancipation that ever occurred."

The national survey offers more identity choices than ever—until those choices get scrubbed away.

Most communities barely had a police force and citizens shared responsibility for enforcing laws. Then the car changed everything.

The events of June 1969 have come to define both Cleveland and the river. Some Clevelanders have a different story.

Routine arrests were the linchpin of a social system intended to humiliate LGBTQ people.

To mark the culmination of Census 2010, we explore the fascinating story of how Americans have counted themselves.

Research finds that white people in regions that were heavily dependent on slavery are more likely to harbor unconscious racism.

Thanks to the new acquisition, scholars at the Athenaeum library are connecting the dots of the city’s history of abolitionists.