Excerpts

Curated stories from around the web.
New on Bunk

The Forgotten Story of the Julian Assange of the 1970s

Decades before WikiLeaks, Philip Agee’s magazine blew the cover of more than 2,000 CIA officers.

How Salvation Army’s Red Kettles Became a Christmas Tradition

The 140-year journey from the streets of London's East End to the parking lot of your nearest mall.
Cover of Orwell's "1984."

Here are the Biggest Fiction Bestsellers of the Last 100 Years

(And what everyone read instead.)
Trump among a group of people with heads bowed in prayer.

Evangelicalism and Politics

Four historians weigh in on evangelicals' affinity for Trump – and their commitment to the conservative movement more broadly.

Atlanta's Famed Cyclorama Mural Will Tell the Truth About the Civil War Once Again

One of the war's greatest battles was fought again and again on a spectacular canvas nearly 400 feet long.
George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush in church.
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How George H.W. Bush Enabled the Rise of the Religious Right

Religious conservatives used the Bush presidency to launch their takeover of the GOP.

Frederick Douglass Forum

An online forum on the life and legacy of Frederick Douglass.

The War to Start All Wars

How the U.S. invasion of Panama ushered in the post-Cold War era of military unilateralism and preemptive war.

Unchecked Power

How monopolies have flourished—and undermined democracy.
Malcolm X.

The Missing Malcolm X

Our understanding of Malcolm X is inextricably linked to his autobiography, but newly discovered materials force us to reexamine his legacy.

How A Corporation Convinced American Jews To Reach For Crisco

A Proctor & Gamble ad-man on the Lower East Side recognized a big marketing opportunity when he saw one.

Fear of Frying

A brief history of Trans Fats.

What the Popularity of 'Fortnite' Has in Common With the 20th Century Pinball Craze

Long before parents freaked over the ubiquitous video game, they flipped out over another newfangled fad.
Sign showing a hand pushing a button.

Cute as a Button? Think Twice

A new book examines the first generation of button-pushing Americans at the turn of the 20th century.

Is History Being Too Kind to George H.W. Bush?

The 41st president put self-interest over principle time and time again.

Donald Trump and the 'Paranoid Style' in American (Intellectual) Politics

Revisiting Holfstadter's "paranoid style" in the era of Trump.

If You Smell Something, Say Something

City dwellers of the 19th century were dogged by a foul terror: miasma.

Mayberry Machiavelli

The self-congratulatory legacies of ‘A Face in the Crowd.’

America’s Struggle for Moral Coherence

The problem of how to reconcile irreconcilable values is what led to the Civil War. It hasn’t gone away.
Howard University librarian Dorothy Porter with a student in the 1950s.

Cataloging Black Knowledge

How Dorothy Porter assembled and organized a premier Africana research collection.

Operation Ajax

How the CIA’s first attempt at regime change nearly failed.

The GOP’s Long History With Black Colleges

Could President Trump actually win over the leaders of historically black colleges and universities?

What Thucydides Knew About the US Today

His accounts of polarization in ancient Athens are as relevant today they were thousands of years ago.

When Economists Took Socialism Seriously

If there’s one thing worth taking away from the new White House report on socialism, it’s that economics is a political argument.

How "America First" Ruined the "American Dream"

Author Sarah Churchwell on the entangled history of America’s most loaded phrases.
Jill Lepore

'The Academy Is Largely Itself Responsible for Its Own Peril'

On writing the story of America, the rise and fall of the fact, and how women’s intellectual authority is undermined.

World War Waste

Memorials of World War I should focus on the truth—that it was bloody and pointless.
Zbigniew Brzezinski

Less Than Grand Strategy

Zbigniew Brzezinski’s Cold War.

The Costs of the Confederacy

In the last decade, taxpayers have spent at least $40 million on Confederate monuments and groups that perpetuate racist ideology.

Half the Land in Oklahoma Could be Returned to Native Americans. It Should Be.

A Supreme Court case about jurisdiction in an obscure murder has huge implications for tribes.

Fracturing Landscapes: A History of Fences on the U.S.-Mexico Divide

History tells us that Trump's proposed wall will not work, and that it will do more damage than good.
Armed militiamen in front of a house in Jieh, Lebanon, Jan. 18, 1976. AP

How Likely Is A New American Civil War?

Surprising lessons from Lebanon’s Conflict in the 1970s.
Monica Lewinsky surrounded by men in suits.

Why I Participated in a New Docuseries on The Clinton Affair

Reliving the events of 1998 was traumatic, yes—but also worth it, if it helps another young person avoid being “That Woman”-ed.

U.S. Population Growth by State (1900-2017)

The population of every state, visualized like a horse race.

California Wildfires Have Been Fought by Prisoners Since World War II

The war had turned forestry work into a form of civil defense, and prisoners a new army on the home front.
Line graph of history BAs granted, peaking in the 1960s and declining in the 2010s.

The History BA Since the Great Recession

In the wake of the 2008 financial collapse, no undergraduate area of study has fallen off more than history.
Man cheering at a political rally while wearing a Trump sticker on his cheesehead hat.

'Tribalism’ Doesn’t Explain Our Political Conflicts

We should look to history – not prehistory – to understand current political challenges.
Museum exhibit in Peru: a diorama with artifacts and mannequins representing paleoindian culture.

Three New DNA Studies Are Shaking Up the History of Humans in the Americas

Three new genetics studies present a fascinating, complex picture of how the first people in America spread across two continents.

The Globalist

George Soros after the open society.
A painting entitled "The First Thanksgiving, 1621" by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (ca. 1932).

A Brief History of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a holiday about food – but it is more specifically a holiday about food’s absence.
Painting of people pulling down a statue to King George III in New York City.

Patriot Propaganda

A new book argues that race and racism fueled the fires of the American Revolution.
A painting entitled "The First Thanksgiving, 1621" by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (ca. 1932).

Thanksgiving: The National Day of Mourning

A Native student explains why the holiday is a painful reminder of a whitewashed past.
KKK march in Washington in 1925.

The Second Klan

Linda Gordon’s new book captures how white supremacy has long been part of our political mainstream.

Explaining the 'Mystery' of Numbers Stations

The stations' broadcasts have been attributed to aliens and Cold War relics, but they actually are coded intelligence messages.

Making a New World: Armistice Soundwave

A team of sound artists reconstructs what the end of the First World War might have sounded like.

Into the Trenches in Red and Blue

Looking at color photographs of WWI feels like seeing a familiar scene through a different pair of eyeglasses.
Frederic Remington illustration of Wounded Knee massacre.

Midterms and Troops: The Bid to Save a Party that Led to the Wounded Knee Massacre

The political context for one of the worst atrocities ever to take place on U.S. soil.
Lithograph of John Winthrop.
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What We Get Wrong About ‘A City on Hill’

And why we need to rediscover its real meaning.

When Richard Nixon Declared War on the Media

Like Nixon, Trump has managed to marginalize the media, creating an effective foil.
Soldiers erecting a barbed wire fence at the U.S.-Mexico border.

That Beautiful Barbed Wire

The concertina wire Trump loves at the border has a long, troubling legacy in the West.
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