Excerpts

Soviet ban? What Soviet ban?

It’s a history lesson worth remembering: The exploitation of immigrant workers only encourages more—and worse—abuse.

The founders of Women’s Studies were overwhelmingly white, and focused on the experiences of white, heterosexual women.

Today, we tend to assume dieting is for women, but in the 1860s, it was a masculine pursuit.

Ellis Island celebrates its 125th anniversary as the federal immigration depot.

Flora Rose and Martha Van Rensselaer lived in an open lesbian relationship and helped found the field of home economics.

Seventy-four years ago today, lawmakers passed an amendment to the U.S. Flag Code.

Jeanette Rankin was the first woman to become a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. And she once tried to outlaw war.

The debate about the nature of Woodrow Wilson's health is intertwined with questions about his self-righteous character.

Mavis Staples' lyrics span from the civil-rights-era to today's societal issues.

What sparked one of the deadliest insurrections in American history?

Ronald Reagan is at the heart of the modern American politics of advertising, public relations, and a television in every home.

Bureaucracy used to work through patronage, an informal system of job-distribution by the party in power. Why did it change?

William Wrigley, Jr. started selling soap and became a prodigy of consumerism.

A Southern governor proclaimed April Confederate Heritage Month. Will slavery be mentioned?

What did Americans think of World War I before the US entered the conflict 100 years ago?

In the case of Chester Arthur, the story is one of surprising redemption.

Slave ownership was once as entrenched in American life as gun ownership.

The American dreams of Mark Lilla and Ta-Nehisi Coates.

A crucial new work of generational analysis explores how society turned millennials into human capital.

When industrial fertilizer replaced dung heaps, its spoils helped fund the spread of plastics.

What a forgotten commander in chief can teach Donald Trump.

But her memoir caused a rift with Mary Todd Lincoln.

Longtime tenant in the 165-year-old St. Denis building in New York City reflects on the building's history.

Selma and the unfulfilled promise of civil rights.

A new museum exhibit in Philadelphia showcases the first public health record of African Americans.

Author Jesmyn Ward on the racism “built into the bones” of the state where she grew up and is choosing to raise her children.

Why do white people love Black Panther, just as they love Star Wars?

How black freedom benefited poor whites.

The African roots of the Black Panther story.

This weekend is the anniversary of Robert F. Kennedy’s fateful decision to enter the 1968 presidential race. What if he hadn’t?

Kennedy had his own secret back channel with Moscow. It may have kept the superpowers from going to war.

Gil Scott-Heron's searing 1970 commentary on the nation's economic priorities.

The success of the 1963 March on Washington hinged on a confluence of factors that aren't yet present for demonstrators today.

The blockbuster refuses to flatten its characters into simple heroes or villains — and that's exactly what makes it so refreshing.

How a now-forgotten classroom murder inflamed the national gun argument.

The March for Our Lives organizers are not an anomaly, but follow in a long tradition of youth activism in America.

Fifteen years after the U.S. invasion, there’s no satisfying answer to the question: What were we doing in Iraq anyway?

The Koch Foundation is often praised for its higher-ed funding, but the money is going to some radical professors.

Errol Morris and the hot cold war.

A preview of Trumpism in 2010 protests against a proposed mosque in lower Manhattan.

The GOP was once the party of protectionism, while the Democrats led the way on free trade.

The bestselling guru's ancient wisdom is unmistakably modern – a disturbing symptom of the social malaise he sets out to cure.

She did not write her most famous work until late in life. Until then, she thought of herself as a poet of the sea.

A 1964 presidential campaign advertisement for Lyndon Baines Johnson.

After Democrats lost in 1876, they set about investigating the new Republican president — only for everything to backfire.

A conversation with Anna Zeide about her book, “Canned: The Rise and Fall of Consumer Confidence in the American Food Industry.”

An collection of audio and video recordings that document Americans' efforts to preserve historic structures.

The 1927 disaster exposed a country divided by stereotypes, united by modernity.

A roundup of historians' commentary about Billy Graham in the wake of his death.