Excerpts

On Robert Moses, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the culture of environmental waste.

The "parental rights" movement, rooted in colonial theocracy, has evolved into a political force resisting racial, gender, and educational equality.

A critique of colonialism from Martian science fiction.

A reading list tracing the history of the birth control movement through novels.

Greenwich Village’s bohemian and queer culture roots lie in its history of incarcerating women, notably via the Women’s Court and House of Detention.

John Steinbeck based “The Grapes of Wrath” on Sanora Babb’s notes. But she was writing her own American epic.

A new film examines Trump's formative years under the tutelage of Roy Cohn.

Norma Gabler's work in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s foreshadowed today's campaigns.

Campus speech debates reveal a history of distorted narratives, balancing free speech, moral standards, and generational conflicts in U.S. universities.

Quinn Slobodian and Jennifer Mittelstadt discuss their research on the meanings of “globalism” and “sovereignty” throughout history.

On Percival Everett’s “James.”

Donald Trump’s victory will inevitably reopen the “fascism debate.” But does a populist whose appeal cuts across diverse groups truly fit the fascist profile?

Historically, liberals defended the First Amendment and our free speech rights. Now, too many on the left seek to undermine constitutional protections.

Testing is necessary. The SAT’s creator is not.

Why “Let’s have public schools like the Founding Fathers had” is such a terrible idea.

Americans love games of chance, but history shows they're a poor substitute for a robust investment in public goods.

The 20th-century movement to fix slouching questions the moral and political dimensions of addressing bad backs over wider public health concerns.

Cicely Saunders realized that preparing for a good death is the first step in providing one.

In the cultural wasteland of the Reagan era, they showed that a band could have mass appeal without being cheesy, or nostalgic, or playing hair metal.

When Thomas Jefferson penned ‘all men are created equal,’ he did not mean individual equality, says Stanford scholar.

Democrats have often described Latinos as decisive when they support liberal candidates and inconsequential when they don’t.

The labor troubadour Joe Hill was executed by a Utah firing squad for a crime he almost certainly didn’t commit.

Leaders of the political right learned lessons from the 1960s that still inform the movement today.

The success of “Reagan” reflects the market demands of a more fragmented moviegoing public—and reality.

History can make the U.S. better prepared for the specter of protracted large-scale ground combat, which has grown more real in the wake of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The story of how Ed Carnes became a judge offers crucial lessons for those who hope to unwind the policies of mass incarceration.

As resistance to integration mounted, Florence Mars bought a camera and began to photograph many subjects, including the trial of the killers of Emmett Till.

How fifty years of barcode magic came to be.

From the French Revolution to January 6th, crowds have been heroized and vilified. Now they’re a field of study.

Conservatives love to bemoan their supposed status as oppressed minorities in universities. But the college campus has long been a key site for the Right.

Jean Strouse explores the relationship between the Anglo-Jewish Wertheimers and John Singer Sargent, who painted twelve portraits of them.

In the 1970s, trucker films like "Smokey and the Bandit" celebrated rebellious, working-class solidarity and freedom, with complex politics at play.

Radicals have long been blamed for wildfires in the Pacific Northwest.

The forgotten history of the Lloyd-La Follette Act and of whistleblowing in the federal workforce.

Apple experts divide time into “before Honeycrisp” and “after Honeycrisp,” and apples have never tasted so good.

Trump's second term echoes 19th-century policies: tariffs and immigration limits protect workers, while deregulation risks widening inequality.

The ADL's influence on U.S. politics mobilizes against Black and Arab leaders, enforces pro-Israel stances, and capitalizes on anti-hate efforts.

The Supreme Court’s deference to FDR during World War II resulted in unjustifiable ethical breaches.

Trump's seeming mixup of asylum-seeking refugees with patients in psychiatric institutions stems from a long rhetorical and political tradition.

Christian supremacists are plotting the end of America as we know it.

How a simple message came to be used nearly word-for-word in elections large and small for more than 200 years.

Stephanie Mueller´s book sheds light on the percieved death of liberalism and the fear of corporations.

The project of “reclamation and celebration” proceeds from an impulse to rediscover black Greats who by force of their own will make “change.”

Some early progressives may have been advocates of states’ rights, but they misunderstood the philosophy of the American Founding.

It’s part of a project to rebuild Washington-on-the-Brazos, “the birthplace of Texas,” where the declaration that created the Republic of Texas was signed.

The rejection that ended Morse's art career eventually led to the invention of the telegraph.

Churchill weaponized her powers of seduction—but Pamela Harriman came into her own when she brought her glamour to Washington.

The unraveling of this long-buried atrocity is forging a path toward reconciliation.

As a congressman, Davy Crockett found ways to navigate populist upheaval and maintain his own independence.

Charles Lindbergh’s ideology prefigured Donald Trump’s—and was rightly disgraced.