Excerpts

Twenty-five years ago, protesters shut down the meeting of the World Trade Organization. At the time, it seemed very important. But is it now?

It's a great story. The only problem is that the whole thing is probably made up.

In 1916, an unlikely duo exposed political corruption in Indiana, setting a new precedent for fair voting across the country.

The white pines of New England may have done more than any leaf of tea to kick off the American Revolution.

Anti-Trump Republicans revere Ronald Reagan as Trump’s opposite—yet in critical ways Reagan may have been his forerunner.

Demography has not managed to be destiny in the past half-century—but predictions of a millenarian shift have not lost their appeal.

Richard Beck’s “Homeland” traces the far-reaching aftereffects of the attacks and tries to recover the events of the day, as they happened.

A new book on how 9/11 altered the national psyche also demonstrates how it stunted progressive politics.

On the independence of the Muscogee Nation.

How a subgenre of murder mysteries plays with the way real history is written.

This large database of possible American war crimes committed in Iraq and Afghanistan shows that the military-justice system rarely punishes perpetrators.

An anti-Vietnam protest that resulted in the Supreme Court confirming that students are persons under the constitution.

America long ago rejected the trappings of monarchy in favor of republicanism, but many have wanted to have it both ways.

There’s hagiography, then there’s...whatever this is.

Documents show Henry Kissinger misled President Gerald Ford about clandestine U.S. efforts to undermine the elected government of Salvador Allende.

A community health center in Los Angeles that sought to get patients back into the community.

Leading up to a 2004 debate about same-sex marriage, conservatives shifted their focus away from moral issues and toward arguments about children’s welfare.

A new book examines battles over drag story hours and book bans through the lens of LGBTQ history.

On the economic system of Silicon Valley.

The factionalized press was the site of campaigning in the U.S.'s first contested presidential elections.

The 40th president inadvertently prepared the ground for the 45th in multiple ways.

Can language unify the people?

How the U.S. created a new kind of managed and political monetary system in the wake of World War I.

An effective media strategy has often been crucial to rallying the public behind Black victims of fatal violence.

The rhythms of our days may never be the same.

How the Wakasa stone, a memorial to a Japanese man murdered in a Utah internment camp, became the flash point of a bitter modern dispute.

A newly digitized set of records reveals the plight and bravery of enslaved people in the North.

Most ministers were silent about Watergate. Why was one evangelical pastor different?

At least since the 1960s, a warped vision of college life has shaped U.S. culture and politics.

The spirit of socialism has coursed through the American Midwest ever since the movement emerged, continuing to animate the political landscape today.

We take for granted the Titians and Botticellis that hang in galleries across the U.S., little aware how and why they were acquired.

On the native prairies of North America, green is the problem.

Stephen Breyer criticizes recent Supreme Court decisions and argues for a more pragmatic jurisprudence.

During the Cold War, the AFL-CIO actively participated in efforts to suppress left-wing labor movements abroad.

On the myths and rituals of the market, the lost radicalism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the rise of neoliberalism.

By suggesting that those seeking asylum in the U.S. are dangerous, Trump echoes the often false narratives around the 1980s Mariel boatlift.

In 2002, Republicans attacked the patriotism of a distinguished Democratic veteran. It worked and they've kept doing it ever since.

Before AC, office workers relied on building design to adapt to high temperatures. The promise of boosted productivity created a different kind of workplace.

An epic account of a vital economic artery and our many efforts to control it.

A researcher challenged the idea that women did not – and should not – experience sexual desire.

The idea of "Black jobs" owes to 18th and 19th century divisions of labor designed to uphold slavery and white supremacy.

A half-century ago, "Saturday Review" asked some of the era's visionaries for their predictions of what 2024 would look like. Here are their hits and misses.

Revisiting the Agrarian-Distributists and their fabrication of an American past.

Welcome to Colonial Williamsburg, the largest living museum that is taking a radical approach to our national divides.

The question should not be if settler colonialism factored into the history of the Civil War but how and to what extent.

It seemed to me that the conditions of cancer and captivity shared physical, emotional, and spiritual correspondences.

In the 1950s, the covers of most jazz records featured abstract designs. By the late 1960s, album aesthetics better reflected the times and the musicians.

Including musical notation of its songs, kahs, and coos.

Forged in the cauldron of Chicago’s streets and factories, born from the experience of workers in the mills and plants of Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland.

Victorian diners loved white tile, too.