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Curated stories from around the web.
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The Dramatic Fall of Silent Sam, UNC’s Confederate Monument

Protesters toppled the 1913 statue Monday, making it the latest Civil War memorial to be removed by government or demonstrators.

The Central American Child Refugee Crisis: Made in U.S.A.

By supporting repressive governments, the U.S. has fueled the violence that has caused tens of thousands of kids to flee north.

Sex, Beer, and Coding: Inside Facebook’s Wild Early Days in Palo Alto

Mark Zuckerberg and his buddies built a corporate proto-culture that continues to influence the company today.

The Rare Women in the Rare-Book Trade

When most people hear the term rare books, they imagine an old boys’ club of dealers seeking out first editions, mostly by men.

Trump's Nixon-Style Enemies List

The parallel with Nixon leads to this question: Will voters still hold a president accountable for abuse of power?
Woodrow Wilson speaking to Congress.
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Trump's National Security Justification for Tariffs Is Not as Strange as It Sounds

Our concept of national security is so broad it can encompass virtually anything.
Map of world happiness.

Are Things Getting Better or Worse?

Why assessing the state of the world is harder than it sounds.

A Wretched Situation Made Plain on Paper

How an engraving of a slave ship helped the abolition movement.

Aretha Franklin’s Revolution

The soul singer was an architect of the civil-rights movement as much as a witness to it.
C. L. Franklin and his daughter Aretha.

The Man with the Million Dollar Voice

The mighty but divided soul of C.L. Franklin.

Soul Survivor

The revival and hidden treasure of Aretha Franklin.

The Visionary John Wesley Powell Had a Plan for Developing the West, But Nobody Listened

Powell’s foresight might have prevented the 1930s dust bowl and perhaps, today’s water scarcities.

Convulsions Within: When Printing the Declaration of Independence Turns Partisan

Even America's founding document isn't immune to the powers of polarization.

What Can We Learn from the Radical Campuses of 1968?

The struggle at universities was never a simple conflict of generations.
Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan loading equipment onto her plane.

Researchers Say Dozens Heard Amelia Earhart's Final Moments

They claim Earhart made several attempts to reach civilization in her final days — and her messages got through.

Bad Blood

The history of eugenics in the Progressive Age.

Being a Victorian Librarian Was Oh-So-Dangerous

In the late 19th century, more women were becoming librarians. Experts predicted they would suffer ill health and breakdowns.

An Outline of Over 200 Years of Silhouettes

The oldest object on view shows on brown paperboard one of the earliest known images of a slave in the U.S.

Lady Soul Singing it Like It Is

In 1968, Time Magazine searched for the elusive definition of "soul."
Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin Was the Defining Voice of the 20th Century

No one else sang as well as her, and no other singer changed popular music as much as her.

Going to Graceland

The makers of the documentary “The King” turn to Elvis Presley to understand something about the state of the country.

The Logic of Militant Democracy

From domestic concentration camps to the war on terror.

The Healing Buzz of "Drunk History"

Sweet, filthy, and forgiving, it’s a corrective to the authoritative, we-know-better tone of most historical nonfiction.

Making the Movies Un-American

How Hollywood tried to fight fascism and ended up blacklisting suspected Communists.

White Supremacy Has Always Been Mainstream

“Very fine people”—fathers and husbands, as well as mothers and daughters—have always been central to the work of white supremacy.

Citizenship Shouldn't Be a Birthright

Guaranteeing citizen status simply for being born here is a deliberate misreading of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The U.S. Needs to Face Up to Its Long History of Election Meddling

Russian electoral interference has renewed the temptation for American leaders to do the same.

Rereading Childhood Books Teaches Adults About Themselves

Whether they delight or disappoint, old books provide touchstones for tracking personal growth.

Today’s Voter Suppression Tactics Have A 150 Year History

Rebels in the post-Civil War South perfected the art of excluding voters, but it was yankees in the North who developed the script.

A Conservative Activist’s Quest to Preserve all Network News Broadcasts

Convinced of rampant bias on the evening news, Paul Simpson founded the Vanderbilt Television News Archive.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn at his writing desk in Vermont.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Hid Out in a Tiny Vermont Village

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's best work was done in isolation, a long way from Soviet Russia.
An integrated classroom in Anacostia High School, Washington, D.C. in 1957.

Have We Lost Faith in Public Education?

Economic rationales for schooling are eroding democracy.

The Complicated Fight Over Walt Whitman's Sole Surviving NYC Home

A somewhat neglected vinyl-sided house is now at the center of a literary legacy battle.

The Draconian Dictionary Is Back

Since the 1960s, the reference book has cataloged how people actually use language, not how they should. That might be changing.
Printing food stamps.
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Why American Policy is Leaving Millions Hungry

Instead of trying to eliminate hunger, we continue to talk about personal responsibility.

On Richard Blackett’s "The Captive Quest for Freedom"

Five historians weigh in on a new book about the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act.

The Little Mayors of the Lower East Side

Getting to know the New York City street mayors of the turn of the century.

The World’s Most Peculiar Company

How does Hammacher Schlemmer, famous for such eccentric products as the Navigable Water Park, continue to survive in the age of Amazon?

He Was Hanged For Helping Slaves Rebel. Now Norwich Officials Are Asking Virginia For A Pardon.

A pardon request for Aaron Dwight Stevens argues that slavery-related crimes are null.

When Speech Meets Hate

A legal expert offers a First Amendment analysis of the summer’s violent rallies.

What Will Happen to Stone Mountain, America’s Largest Confederate Memorial?

The Georgia landmark is a testament to the enduring legacy of white supremacy

An Intimate History of Antifa

"Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,” by Mark Bray, is part history, part how-to.
Violence during the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville on August 12, 2017.
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Charlottesville Was About Memory, Not Monuments

Why our history educations must be better.

Think Confederate Monuments Are Racist? Consider Pioneer Monuments

Most early pioneer statues celebrated whites dominating American Indians.

California Burning

Wildfires in the American West are becoming ever more prevalent and destructive. How did we get to this point?

Paens to the 'Postwar Order' Won't Save Us

A critique of a recent open letter by members of the foreign policy intelligentsia.
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Why We Need Government to Safeguard Against the New Robber Barons

Competition among media companies is crucial to democracy.

The Deadly Toxin Outbreak That Spurred America's Food Safety System

To prevent botulism in tinned goods, scientists and canners worked with the government to protect the public.

Ten Years After the Crash, We Are Still Living in the World It Brutally Remade

A seismic reading of the financial earthquake and its aftershocks, including those that still jolt us today.

How Medicare Was Won

The history of the fight for single-payer health care for the elderly and poor should inform today's movement to win for Medicare for All.
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