Excerpts

The technical wizardry of Peter Jackson's "They Shall Not Grow Old" should not obscure its narrow, outdated storyline.

Tracing the culinary revolution that changed Americans’ approach to eating.

The governor’s yearbook picture, like many images before it, reinforces the belief that blacks are content in their oppression.

Truman seized control of the country’s steel mills during the Korean War. It led to a landmark ruling by the Supreme Court.

The punkahs of the Antebellum era served many purposes.

Following wartime opportunities west, seven million “Rosie the Riveters” found more than just jobs when they reached California.

Montana's emblematic Glacier National Park reveals the impact of human history and culture.

Amazon, the Great Depression, and the fiscal history #HQ2 supporters miss.

A new book argues that the Constitution’s framers believed that vast concentrations of wealth were the enemy of democracy.

He never denounced slavery and was brutal towards American Indians, but remains a popular figure. Why?

The strange tale of the socialites who shaped modern marriage on the American frontier.

For the last decade of his life, the sozzled Hemingway was in thrall to an Italian 30 years his junior.

A set of 200-year-old ciphers may reveal the location of millions of dollars’ worth of treasure buried in rural Virginia.

A history of filmmakers retelling the story of New York’s architecture.

In the period of a few weeks, President Trump mocked both the Trail of Tears and the Wounded Knee Massacre.

The borderlands have “been transformed into a vast graveyard of the missing.”

A childhood lesson in the backseat of a 1973 Mustang.

The untold origin story of an iconic workout machine, told one step at a time.

Minstrel shows were once so mainstream that even presidents watched them.

Why do Americans get so worked up by the basic assertion that all science is political?

The first episode of NPR's new history podcast tells the story of a 1953 coup that set the stage for US-Middle East relations ever since.

A history of blackface and minstrelsy in American culture.

Populism is typically presented as a new threat to liberal democracy. But properly understood, it is neither modern nor rightwing.

How a census taker and an artist were participants to the grand project of displaying and explaining America to itself.

Why did Carter G. Woodson choose February, and what was his vision for the annual commemoration?

They offer jaw-dropping examples of the sexism and racism that shaped professional cultures.

If we remember correctly how the Cold War ended, we can gain inspiration for how to begin to overcome the “new cold war.”

On November 9, 1983, the Soviet Union nearly ordered a full pre-emptive nuclear strike against the US and Western Europe.

"This is not just a fad. This, for us, was a dance of survival, but it was also a social dance."

Whether we consider the sounds of nature to be pleasant or menacing depends largely on our ideologies.

They were enormous, tech-savvy, and invasive in their methods—and they enlisted Abraham Lincoln into their ranks.

Following in the footsteps of 20th century African Americans, Ethelene Whitmire experiences a 21st century transatlantic crossing.

Yellow fever ravaged Philadelphia in 1793, touching nearly everyone in the city.

For years, she’s injected subtle, deft works of cultural history into the New York Times.

And why they must resist the Court's current race-based precedents.

Bridgett M. Davis tracks her mother's journey from Nashville to Detroit.

In the early 1800s, David Hosack created one of the nation's first botanical gardens to further his pioneering medical research.

Poke around the game’s fictional South and you’ll find cross-burning Klansmen, whom you are free to kill.

Carter G. Woodson’s unpublished work was discovered in 2005 by a Howard University history professor.

Bush’s 2002 State of the Union address kicked off a war that continued well into the 21st century.

Carter’s speech heralded a dramatic shift in foreign policy toward a policy of containment of Soviet influence.

Or better put, why is it something so many outside of the South have recently adopted?

America is covered in Confederate statues. We can do better — and here’s how.

How Plessy v. Ferguson shaped the history of racial discrimination in America.

Is it time for an end to American imperialism? Two authors re-examine American intervention overseas.

The trends that brought us Howard Schultz (and Donald Trump) started in the 1970s.

What the battle between Herbert Hoover and FDR can teach us.

At some point, Jackie began to refer to himself not as “I” but as “we.”

Joy Lisi Rankin’s book on the history of personal computing looks at the technology’s forgotten democratic promise.

The Georgia governor’s election was the latest example of how James Madison’s words continue to shape our views on race.