Excerpts

How a simple request became a bureaucratic nightmare.

The government shouldn’t subsidize porn, he argued.

Reflecting on the tremendous impact of "The Souls of Black Folk," on the 150th anniversary of Du Bois' birth.

Coal country still clings to the industry that was long its chief source of revenue and a way of life.

People in the audience thought the player who stole the base was playing a joke.

Comparing the methods of Oxford University in the U.K. with those of the University of Mississippi shows there’s much to learn.

In his travelogues, Woodson rhapsodized over what he saw as a love of democracy among hard-scrabble mountain settlers of both races.

Considering Du Bois' complex ideas on the role of black artists in the struggle against white supremacy.

Trump's insistence on national solidarity, rejection of globalism, and demand for total patriotism channel Teddy Roosevelt.

How pitch, tonality, and celebrity imitation have portrayed cluelessness.

On the teachers' strike in West Virginia.

As the Statue of Liberty turned 100, our long battle over immigration was having its moment in Reagan’s America.

Three past conflicts tell a very different story.

When a Tufts instructor launched the trippy TV show on WGBH, it was unlike anything viewers had ever seen.

An unpopular Lyndon B. Johnson sought unity amid turmoil in his 1968 address to Congress.

The people who make it past 100, who watch the most history unfold, are almost all women.

Released 50 years ago, the report concluded that poverty and institutional racism were driving inner-city violence.

It’s unsurprising considering the public careers of today’s political leaders began in the 1970s.

Conservatives have used celebrity glitz effectively, too.

Its defenders claim to be standing up for uncomfortable truths, but race science is still as bogus as ever.

From the meh (A Beautiful Mind) to the stunningly beautiful (Moonlight), and the classic (All About Eve) to the god-awful (Birdman).

Who was the most prolific African American filmmaker of the silent film era? That’s a question that has us asking, “were there any?”

His hands-off approach to policy-making and moral leadership hearkens back to much earlier times.

That's the conclusion of a psychology study published in the journal Sciece.

Music continues to hold an allure for elites seeking to politicize patriotism in support of their privilege.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans want to convince Americans that Southern heritage isn’t about slavery. Is it a lost cause?

How a fight over Native American symbolism in Oregon brought to light the conflict at America's core.

Immigrants eagerly joined the war cause both by joining the military and working in important industry at home.

There are two critical periods for Christmas. One is the Victorian era. The other is the 1960s.

After the urban unrest of the Long Hot Summer, a commission was formed.

On the 1870s skirmish between John D. Rockefeller and the upstart competitors who built the country’s first long-distance oil pipeline.

Why the American public is infatuated with the relationship between physical fitness and the presidency.

The celebratory month has its roots in the socialist and labor movements.

Searching for where I belong, I find myself cobbling together a mongrel Judaism—half-remembered and contradictory and all mine.

Seventy-five years before Citizens United, the Supreme Court ruled that newspapers were entitled to First Amendment protections.

Instead of revitalizing the Democratic coalition, the commission's report exposed the fractures in American society.

The long historical roots and continuing relevance of the disgraced preacher's story.

Senator Fred Harris describes his experience on the Kerner Commission, tasked with explaining the causes of urban riots in 1967.

Trump's unbridled rhetorical rampage has stripped the presidency of its moral ambition and authority. 

Mississippi’s outdated textbooks teach an abbreviated version of civil rights, undermining the state’s new ‘innovative’ standards.

"I'm Just a Slave" is a necessary song about Juneteenth.

A conversation with the author of a forthcoming book about the twists and turns of Marx's legacy in America.

His presidency was known for corruption, scandal, and booze. In a new book, Ron Chernow attempts to rehabilitate it.

Nazi Germany has closer ties to America and its history of institutionalized racism than some may think.

The notion that gun control has racist origins is popular in gun rights circles. Here's what's wrong with the claim.

Despite their large role in civil rights activism, black women have frequently been excluded from prominent positions in protests.

A genetic mutation in some New Mexico communities can be traced to a common ancestor who came to the area more than 400 years ago.

The story of the artist behind Exxon's famous logo.

A conversation with the creator of a virtual reality experience that takes you inside the protests leading up to MLK Jr.’s death.

Country music is assumed to be the soundtrack of the Republican Party. But it wasn't always that way.