Excerpts

Curated stories from around the web.
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Lee Atwater’s Infamous 1981 Interview on the Southern Strategy

The 42 minute recording, acquired by James Carter IV, confirms Atwater’s incendiary remarks and places them in context.

The Lost Dream of a Superhighway to Honor the Confederacy

Remnants of the dream of a coast-to-coast tribute to their vision of the South are still visible.

When the Wild Imagination of Dr. Seuss Fueled Big Oil

Geisel did not begin his career writing children stories, but selling products.

Up Against the Centerfold

What it was like to report on feminism for Playboy in 1969

Jump-Rope Songs Were Once a Cornerstone of American Folklore. Now It’s Memes.

The Library of Congress is turning to the internet for a new generation of shared culture.

Retail Therapy

What our mannequins say about us.

How the Disposable Straw Explains Modern Capitalism

A history of modern capitalism from the perspective of the straw. Seriously.

Why the Civil War West Mattered – and Still Does

The West cared very much about the Civil War.
Laura Bush and Michelle Obama.
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Why Laura Bush Speaking Up on Separating Families Matters So Much

The language that has long been critical to covertly mobilizing activism.

The Roots of Trump’s Immigration Barbarity

The outrage over family separation creates an opportunity to reverse the bipartisan consensus that has long victimized immigrants.
People standing in circles holding hands, near a teepee.

Will New Age Ideas Help us in The High-Tech Future?

From Stonehenge to Silicon Valley: how technology nurtured New Age ideas in a world supposedly stripped of its magic.

Evangelical Fear Elected Trump

The history of evangelicalism in America is shot through with fear—but it also contains an alternative.

The Mystique of the American Diner, From Jack Kerouac to “Twin Peaks”

Freedom, fear and friendliness mingle in these emblematic eateries.

During the 1973 UpStairs Lounge Arson, Gays Had to Take Rescue Efforts Into Their Own Hands

The New Orleans Fire Department was accused of not responding immediately and refusing to touch the bodies of victims.

Think This Solar Eclipse Is Getting a Lot of Hype? You Should Have Seen 1878

The darkness of the eclipse lit up American minds more than a century ago.

American Secular

The founding moment of the United States brought a society newly freed from religion. What went wrong?

Remembering the ADA

Americans may be tempted to pat ourselves on the back about the ADA, but we can’t afford to congratulate ourselves too soon.
Coretta Scott King.

Why Coretta Scott King Fought for a Job Guarantee

She saw economic precarity as not just a side effect of racial subjugation, but as central to its functioning.
Amos Lawrence.

The Bostonian Who Armed the Anti-Slavery Settlers in "Bleeding Kansas"

How Amos Adams Lawrence became an abolitionist.

The Racism Behind Alien Mummy Hoaxes

Pre-Columbian bodies are once again being used as evidence for extraterrestrial life.

Walt Whitman—Patriotic Poet, Gay Iconoclast, or Shrewd Marketing Ploy?

Americans tend to think of Walt Whitman as the embodiment of democracy and individualism, but have you ever considered Walt Whitman, the brand?

The True American

A review on the many publications about Henry David Thoreau's life for the bicentennial anniversary of his birthday.

Why It’s Fair to Compare the Detention of Migrants to Concentration Camps

Not every concentration camp is Auschwitz. The term is much older.
Pen Park

The Train at Wood's Crossing

Piecing together the story of an 1898 lynching in a community that chose to forget most of the details.

Hiroshima

A hundred thousand people were killed by the atomic bomb, and these six were among the survivors.

The Yakima Terror

Ninety years ago in Washington, a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment resulted in horror for Filipinos.
Trump glares at Trudeau at the G7 meeting.
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Trump Has Ignored the Worst Chapter of U.S.-Canada Relations

The War of 1812 holds lessons about the costly error of tariffs — not the threat of Canadians.
A patient in solitary confinement at a special hospital at Broadmoor in Berkshire (1956).
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America Must Listen to its Prisoners Before We Make a Major Mistake

The anniversary of two major revolts remind us that tough-on-crime policies have created intense suffering in our prisons.
An integrated classroom in Anacostia High School, Washington, D.C. in 1957.

Common Core Is a Menace to Pluralism and Democracy

But can locally empowered communities really fix our schools' problems?

The South's Penchant for Confederate Street Names, Mapped

A new project tallies the streets named after Confederate leaders alongside those named after civil rights personalities.

Declaration of War

The violent rise of white supremacy after the Vietnam War.

Charleston, Key Port For Slaves In America, Apologizes And Meditates On Racism Today

The apology was a long time coming.
Billy Graham at the pulpit.

American Evangelicalism and the Politics of Whiteness

If white evangelicals are united by anything, it isn't theology.

Scaramucci’s Removal Evokes White House Turmoil During the Reagan Years

Anthony Scaramucci's resignation after 10 days broke a record held by Ronald Reagan’s communications director.
Trump speaking.

How the U.S. Lost Its Mind

Make America reality-based again.

Lonesome for Our Home

Zora Neale Hurston’s long-lost oral history with one of the last survivors of the Atlantic slave trade.
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The Vietnam War That Never Goes Away

Popular theater productions and Hollywood movies about the Vietnam War have a continued place in popular culture and memory.

When the U.S. Government Tried to Fight Communism With Buddhism

Recent violence in Myanmar reminds us that religion has long been central to Southeast Asian politics.
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A Bullet Can Cross the Border. Can the Constitution? The Supreme Court Won’t Say.

The Supreme Court punts on Hernandez v. Mesa, leaving the Constitution lost in the borderlands.
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How the Fight Over Civil Forfeiture Lays Bare the Contradictions in Modern Conservatism

The brewing conflict between originalism and law-and-order politics.

Where Donald Trump Learned His Tough Love for History

He professes admiration for "statues and monuments" but his family has a record of tearing down rather than preserving.

How Chop Suey Saved San Francisco's Chinatown

For Chinese immigrants, surviving in America has always required intense strategy.
Lithograph of Freedman's Bureau official separating freedmen from hostile whites.

The Freedmen's Bureau

A primary source set and teaching guide created by educators.

Old West Theme Parks Paint a False Picture of Pioneer California

As the nation debates monuments and public memory, it’s important to understand how other cultural sites help people learn (false) history.
A Japanese American woman holds a baby at an internment camp.

‘At Least During the Internment …’ Are Words I Thought I’d Never Utter

I was sent to a camp at just 5 years old — but even then, they didn't separate children from families.
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Religious Groups Are Fighting Trump to Keep Families Together

But they didn’t always oppose ripping kids from their parents.

Trumpism, Realized

To preserve the political and cultural preeminence of white Americans against a tide of demographic change, the administration has settled on a policy of systemic child abuse.

The Military, Minorities, and Social Engineering

Trump’s transgender ban restarts the debate about the relation between military service and social policy.

The International Vision of John Willis Menard, the First African-American Elected to Congress

Although he was denied his House seat, Menard continued his activism with the goal of uniting people across the Western Hemisphere.

"I've Studied The History Of Confederate Memorials. Here's What To Do About Them."

Many were funded privately. The public now deserves a say in their fate.
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