Excerpts

Keeping the Irish poor out of America helped shape our restrictive immigration policies.

Historian Thomas S. Kidd examines the tension between Benjamin Franklin's deism and his frequent religious rhetoric

A biography of Stevie Nicks does little to dispel the magic.

Doctors then, as now, overprescribed the painkiller to patients in need, and then, as now, government policy had a distinct bias.

A new biography of Lucy Parsons makes it clear that the activist deserves attention apart from her more well-known husband.

Trump's language might be uniquely vulgar but his ideas are part of a long trend.

Haiti, not the US or France, was where the assertion of human rights reached its climax in the Age of Revolution.

When the Long Hot Summer came to Wisconsin, the reality of race relations was impossible to ignore.

The history of blue jeans has been whitewashed.

And some other things about the country that Donald Trump doesn’t know and doesn’t care to know.

The canonical image of Martin Luther King Jr. neglects many of his most important intellectual, ethical, and political critiques.

James Baldwin's dispatch from MLK's funeral foreshadowed an America we may never escape.

On Haiti, Donald Trump sounds a lot like Thomas Jefferson.

Why the policies of the Federal Reserve were a central focus for the civil rights movement.

The 20th century produced monuments to a false consensus—can the 21st century create a more representative commemorative sphere?

If you're wondering how Trump happened, all you have to do is let Pat Buchanan beguile you with a history no one else can tell.

We are a nation of immigrants and refugees. Yet we always fear who is coming next.

Fighting over immigration is central to the American story.

How one black woman's campaign for justice after a rape by six white men shaped the struggle for equality—and the #MeToo movement.

“When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.”

An explanation of the provision that allows for the removal of a president who is deemed by others to be unable to serve.

Outrage over the revolt spurred the U.S. to deliver on a promise of the revolution.

In 1939, a refugee ban kept 20,000 Jewish children out of the U.S.

The history of immigrants in the U.S. teaches that no amount of assimilation will protect you when an alien requires conjuring.

A semester-length guide for educators and citizens seeking to understand the history and meaning of immigration in the U.S.

In this 1915 letter to Congress, President Wilson explains his decision to reject new immigration restrictions.

"You're taking over our country" echoes long-held narratives and has renewed prominence in conservative discourse.

The fears that were conjured by nativists 80 years ago are chillingly similar to what we're hearing today.

He was the Chinese-American cook who became the father of ‘birthright citizenship.’

Donald Trump combines the instincts of a reality-TV star with the politics of a hundred-and-seventy-year-old nativist movement.

Fear of diminishing broodstock got the gals going outdoors.

In the late 19th century, statesmen feared that Catholics were something less than civilized (and less than white).

If radicalism meant insecurity, and immigration meant radicalism, the government's course was clear.

The U.S. is neither a land of nativists nor a haven for immigrants. Since the founding, the truth has lain somewhere in between.

Champions of states' rights love federal power when it suits their goals — like Sessions's anti-marijuana crusade.

Remembering the life of astronaut John Young and the time he took an unauthorized corn beef sandwich into space.

The Trump administration signals a game of chicken with Russia, which could mean the death of arms control.

Mike St. Thomas reviews ‘Paradise Lost: A Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald.'

President Lyndon B. Johnson, Liberty Island, New York, October 3, 1965.

The use of the word "immigrant" in contemporary debates often reflects a lack of understanding of U.S. immigration history.

In early 1965, President Johnson made the case to Congress for comprehensive immigration reform.

It's impossible to understand the country without knowing who's been kept out, who's been let in, and how they've been treated once they arrive.

Using maps to visualize the first five U.S. Congressional elections.

What motivated Viola Liuzzo to take up the cause of justice hundreds of miles from her home?

New York's statue debate hits Italian-Americans hard.

The long history of law enforcement's complicity in the affairs of right-wing insurgents.

On the 50th anniversary of that extraordinary year, historians consider 1968’s meaning and global context.

This past year has shown that the U.S. is far from immune to the forces shaping the rest of the world.

On my transition from editor of terrible history books to a writer of mediocre ones.

Governor McAuliffe has embarked on a campaign to grant clemency more often, and to restore the civil rights of convicted felons.