Excerpts

Generally speaking, emergencies tend to reduce productivity, at least in the short and medium terms.

On the early years of the real estate industry, and the racist effort to convince white Americans to buy single-family homes.

It was a bold plan to win over Black voters skeptical of the Democratic Party. But it turned out to be an illusion.

"The Bondwoman’s Narrative" is the first novel by a Black woman to describe slavery from the inside. Recently, scholars have discovered her true identity.

James Shapiro's book "The Playbook" is a timely reminder both of the power of theater and of the vehement antipathy it can generate.

Sociological data from immediately after the riots in Watts, Los Angeles, in 1965 show major disparities in attitude by race.

Biden’s withdrawal won’t solve all of Democrats’ problems — but it gives them a chance.

The history of Camp Wo-Chi-Ca tells a largely overlooked story about left-wing politics and Black culture.

For the first time, men are permitted to compete in artistic swimming at the 2024 Olympics. But none will.

At the turn of the century, Chicago police killed 307 people, one in eighteen homicides in the city—three times the body count of local gangsters.

Did music really bring down the Wall?

Following the careers of a family of especially corrupt border control officials.

1934 world champion runner Zdenek Koubek, boxer Imane Khelif, and how far we haven’t come on gender in sports.

The famous author, who would have been 100 years old today, was best known for his novels and essays. But correspondence was where his light shone brightest.

The scanning of a package of gum in an Ohio grocery store in 1974 marked the beginning of an era.

Most election maps emphasize the candidates and parties who won the Electoral College. This project shifts the focus to voters, revealing a more nuanced story.

Al Cantello, a star of the U.S. track and field team, arranged a covert meeting between a government agent and a Ukrainian long jumper.

He committed mass murder at My Lai. He was also its fall guy.

The former president is suggesting that Harris became Black only when it was obvious that being Black conferred social advantage.

A story of math and political stasis.

Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland provide an outlet for antiwar soldiers.

In 1965, eight years before Roe v. Wade, an anonymous woman described the steps she took to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.

National Football League pre- and postgame shows have become a testing ground for novel technology in the waning days of linear television.

This 1969 film offers a compelling context for queer cinema and culture prior to the 1970s.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s plane is starting to look like itself again.

In 2024, the U.S. faces some of the same challenges in the region that it did in 1954.

In an age when the White House is being asked if slavery was a good or bad thing, perhaps we should take a look at the history of the history of slavery.

The power of history, numbers, and nostalgia.

The signs that precede the crumbling of American political parties and the creation of new ones.

Trump’s language about immigrants “poisoning” the U.S. repeats past rhetoric that led to civilian detention camps, with horrific, tragic results.

It's misleading, invidious, and it obscures what's actually bad and scary about right-wing nationalist foreign policy.

The federal minimum wage has not risen in over 15 years. We analyze why.

A recent paper provides evidence that the Tuskegee Syphilis Study reduced the life expectancy of African-American men.

“The most underrated president” was a model of successful governance in a world in flux.

A century ago, the Flexner Report led to the closure of 75% of U.S. medical schools. It still explains a lot about today’s unequal access to healthcare.

From loading up the Wayback Machine to 72 hours of scraping, journalists are doing what they can to keep their clips when websites go dark.

It has been 90 years since Ossian Sweet tried to move into his new home; since police stood by and did nothing as a mob threw rocks.

On the private and public lives of the author of “The Fire Next Time” and “Giovanni’s Room.”

When picture postcards began circulating with a frenzy at the turn of the 20th century, a certain motif proved popular: photographs of people posed with books.

What was the Popular Front? Where did it come from, and where did its energies go?

Ask George Washington.

How I learned the story of the My Lai Massacre.

An interactive map of lynching markers in the United States.

Samuel Roth was the sort of bookseller whose wares came wrapped in brown paper.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the age of surveillance.

Created for US insurance firms during devastating fires across the 19th and 20th centuries, the Sanborn maps blaze with detail the aspects of American cities.

Consequences mattered to the Founders—and that meant early American judges upheld major gun restrictions.

In 1943, a Harvard librarian was quietly recruited by the OSS to save the scattered books of Europe.

Before they even learn the details, adherents already know the outcome of real world events. The white guy will be the good guy, no matter what.

Rumors of a link between Prescott Bush and the Nazi war machine have circulated for decades. They were right.