Excerpts

Curated stories from around the web.
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Who Segregated America?

For all of its strengths, Richard Rothstein’s new book does not account for the central role capitalism played in segregating America's cities.

Black History Is American History

What is the greatest libertarian accomplishment of all time? The abolition of slavery.

The Premiere of 'Four Women Artists'

In this 1977 documentary, the spirit of Southern culture is captured through four Mississippi artists who tell their stories.

The Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Show Lives on in the Internet Archive

Episodes from the infamous hip-hop radio show of the '90s.

How the Midlife Crisis Came to Be 

The midlife crisis went from an obscure psychological theory to a ubiquitous phenomenon.

Martin Luther King Jr. and the Meaning of Emancipation

He was a revolutionary, if one committed to nonviolence. But nonviolence does not exhaust his philosophy.

Revolution and Repression: A Framework for African American History

Running through all of historian Gerald Horne's books are the twin themes of revolution and repression.

The World Through the Eyes of the US

The countries that have preoccupied Americans since 1900.

Lightning Struck

How an Atlanta neighborhood died on the altar of Super Bowl dreams.

The Secrets of Lyndon Johnson's Archives

On a presidential paper trail.

Foreign Interference in US Elections Dates Back Decades

2016 was not the first election in which a foreign power tried to interfere – Nazis and Soviets tried it too.
American Indian woman and children.

The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee

“Our cultures are not dead and our civilizations have not been destroyed. Our present tense is evolving as rapidly and creatively as everyone else’s.”
Detail from the newsletter "Interrupt," featuring a raised fist and the slogan "Computers serve the landlords."

Mainframe, Interrupted

A member of the 1960s-70s collective Computer People for Peace talks about the early days of tech worker organizing.

How Air Traffic Controllers Helped End the Shutdown — and Changed History

It shows that labor still has some power, at least when public opinion is on its side.

Bias Training at Starbucks Is a Reminder That the History of Racism Is About Who Belongs Where

A central component of the history of racism is the intersection in which geography and race collide.

When Walt Whitman’s Poems Were Rejected for Being Too Timely

"1861" is just so 1861.

How Mini-Golf Played a Big Role in Desegregating Public Rec Spaces

In the summer of 1941, a group of black men came to play golf at the whites-only East Potomac Park.
Ta-Nehisi Coates.

The Afro-Pessimist Temptation

An examination of the tragic echoes of Reconstruction-era politics following Obama's presidency.
An integrated classroom in Anacostia High School, Washington, D.C. in 1957.

The Radical Supreme Court Decision That America Forgot

In Green v. New Kent County, the Court saw school desegregation as a reparative process.

Susan Fenimore Cooper, Forgotten Naturalist

Susan Fenimore Cooper is now being recognized as one of the nation's first environmentalists.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was More Radical Than You Think

On the 50th anniversary of his death, it’s time to remember who he really was.

Does Journalism Have a Future?

In an era of social media and fake news, journalists who have survived the print plunge have new foes to face.

We’re the Good Guys, Right?

Marvel's heroes are back again, but with little of the subversive aura that once surrounded them.

Back to the Women’s Land

A new book looks at four different experiments in feminist separatism.
Senators Joseph McCarthy and Kenneth Wherry.

The Lavender Scare: When the U.S. Government Persecuted Employees for Being Gay

From 1947 until the 1990s, an estimated 10,000 LGBTQ people were pushed out of government and military positions.

Before Black Lung, the Hawks Nest Tunnel Disaster Killed Hundreds

A forgotten example of the dangers of silica, the toxic dust behind the modern black lung epidemic in Appalachia.

The Unbelievable Story of the Plot Against George Soros

How two Jewish American political consultants helped create the world’s largest anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.
Row of suburban houses.

The Myth of "We Don't Build Houses Like We Used To"

The comment lament misses crucial context about the style trends and building materials of the past.

An Itinerant Photographer's Diverse Portraits of the Turn-of-the-Century American South

A new exhibit features photos by Hugh Mangum, whose glass plate negatives were salvaged from a North Carolina barn.

The Tragic Story of the Man Who Led the Occupation of Alcatraz

A new book traces the role of Richard Oakes in the turbulent but transformative civil rights era of the 1960s and '70s.

The First Female MIT Student Started an All-Women Chemistry Lab

Ellen Swallow Richards applied chemistry to the home to advocate for consumer safety and women's education.

From Drug War to Dispensaries

An oral history of weed legalization’s first wave in the 1990s.

Manufacturing Illegality

Historian Mae Ngai reflects on how a century of immigration law created a crisis.

The Case for Impeachment

Starting the process will rein in a president undermining American ideals—and bring the debate into Congress, where it belongs.
Map of U.S. in pastels, with Benjamin Harrison and the words "Protection to American Labor" at the center.

These 'Persuasive Maps' Aren't Concerned With the Facts

A digital collection shows how subjective maps can be used to manipulate, rather than present the world as it really is.
Martin Luther King Jr. speaking into news microphones.

MLK Warned Us of the Well-Intentioned Liberal

Dr. King did not compromise on racial justice. Neither should we.

The Longest March

In August 1966, the Chicago Freedom Movement, Martin Luther King’s campaign to break the grip of segregation, reached its violent culmination.

The Civil War Isn’t Over

More than 150 years after Appomattox, Americans are still fighting over the great issues at the heart of the conflict.
Lillie Western.

Lillie Western, Banjo Queen

The maleness of guitar culture stretches across decades and genres, but necessary corrections to the record are being made.

A Brief History of the Past 100 Years, as Told Through the New York Times Archives

An analysis of 12 decades of New York Times headlines.

The Populist Specter

Is the groundswell of popular discontent in Europe and the Americas what’s really threatening democracy?
Franklin Roosevelt on the campaign trail.
partner

The Left is Pushing Democrats to Embrace Their Greatest President. It’s a Good Thing.

Democrats should proudly trumpet the New Deal — and extend it.
Anthony Scaramucci
partner

The Revolving Door Between Reality TV and the Trump Administration

Why Anthony Scaramucci’s turn on “Celebrity Big Brother” shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King.

“A More Beautiful and Terrible History” Corrects the Fables Told of the Civil Rights Movement

A new book bursts the bubble on what we’ve learned about the Civil Rights era to show a larger movement with layers.
New York Times building.

The History of 'The New York Times' Stylebook

'The New York Times' was an early adopter of style guidelines.

Agency, Order and Sport in the Age of Trump

Jim Thorpe, Jack Johnson, and the sporting middle ground.

How to Pitch a Magazine (in 1888)

Eleanor Kirk's guide offered a way to break into the boys’ club of publishing.

My Great-Grandfather, the Nigerian Slave-Trader

White traders couldn’t have loaded their ships without help from Africans like my great-grandfather.

Story of Paris Hill Man Connects Maine to ‘Complexities’ of Slave Trade

Torn from his family in Africa, Pedro Tovookan Parris spent the last years of his short life in rural Maine.
Library card catalog card reading "Forgetfulness: see memory."

Historical Amnesias: An Interview with Paul Connerton

“The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.”
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