Excerpts

In 1901, a series of articles took a dim view of the era, and of the idea that all Americans ought to participate in the democratic process.

Johanna Fernández's new book on the Young Lords sheds light on the group's fight for clean streets and public health in 1960s New York City.

Gladys Knight and the Pips have always been more beloved by fans than by music historians, but they are essential to the evolution of soul.

Places and people in the struggle for Mexican American Civil Rights in San Antonio.

"African Founders" corrects some of the ideological uses of Black American history.

A 1945 union vs. studios battle set off broad right-wing hysteria—its lessons should resonate today.

John Brown and the Secret Six—the abolitionists who funded the raid on Harpers Ferry—confronted a question as old as America: When is violence justified?

The Historic American Building Survey's mission to photograph important architecture before its demolition.

For those in later years, the bell’s value lay not in its powerful sound, but in its visual representation.

What the autism diagnosis says about you.

Heroin, Aspirin, and The Spanish Flu.

One hundred years ago roadbuilder Edward J. Mehren wrote that streets, should be redesigned for the utility of motorists alone.

Some Native Americans chose to fight for the Southern cause.

To understand westward expansion, the Trail of Tears, the history of Manifest Destiny, and the impacts to Native Americans, one must understand its buildup.

Is the cost worth the payoff?

Attendees packed D.C.’s Griffith Stadium in 1951 for the wedding spectacular of gospel singer Rosetta Tharpe, who’s now the subject of a show at Ford's Theatre.

Abortion rights in the US were won in the 1970s thanks to militant feminist groups. As those rights are repealed, the fight must return to the streets.

One thing’s for sure: The CIA doesn’t want you to know.

Almost 175 years after the Gold Rush began, Californians are left holding the bag for thousands of abandoned mines.

During the New Deal, the U.S. knew that economic recovery depended upon housing.

The G.I. Bill created a prosperous middle class that was altogether too white.

The 1898 Wilmington massacre overthrew the elected government in the majority-Black city, killed many Black residents and torched a Black-run newspaper.

Who was that traveler? And what did she signify to the poet?

The right has had qualms about universities since the 1930s.

In the 1920s, electricity monopolies survived an antitrust investigation because they had won over the public.

While condemning terrorism should be a no-brainer, "moral clarity" has not guaranteed sound U.S. counterterrorism policy.

Biden continues a tradition of building fences at the US-Mexico border that long precedes Donald Trump.

The Richmond Bread Riot broke out during the Civil War when working-class women in the South became fed up with food shortages.

The relationship between the DJ and his MC derived from a Jamaican “toasting” tradition and its related “sound clash” culture.

These groups are invoking ACT UP's legacy to push for further deregulation of the FDA. Here's why they're wrong.

How the album pays homage to hip-hop's mythical and martial arts origins.

On ramps, xonacatl, skunk eggs and more.

It is impossible to talk about the blues and country without talking about race, authenticity, and contemporary America’s relationship to its past.

Originalism is all the rage on the right, but a gun case at the Supreme Court is exposing its absurdity—even to the conservative justices.

History shows that activists can win statewide fights—but that the strategy might be unsustainable long-term.

At the height of George W. Bush’s War on Terror, Jimmy Carter had the courage to call out Israel for its human rights abuses.

A conversation with the longtime director about “Rustin,” growing up in Kentucky, and putting on a show.

During the Great Depression, St. Louis's Funsten Nut Factory was racially divided. But Black workers went on strike — and got their white coworkers to join them.

Environmental radicalism, left and right.

The proto-Taylorist methods of worker control Charles Babbage encoded into his calculating engines have origins in plantation management.

Touring the American soul.

Friedrich von Hayek and Milton Friedman helped devise Pinochet's economic agenda and endorsed the brutal repression that was needed to force it through.

A conversation about "the gains and pains of America’s exercise obsession."

Nationalism, not postmodernism, is the fount of today's politics of recognition.

Log drivers once steered loose timber on rivers across America before railroad expansion put such shepherds out of work.

The actual history of New Deal policies provides little evidence that it was a rollicking success.

My dad grew up in Robert Moses’s New York City. His story is a testament to how urban planning shapes countless lives.

The civil-rights mastermind was sidelined by his own movement. Now he’s back in the spotlight. What can we learn from his strategies of resistance?

A visit to the old neighborhood.

How cable TV transformed politics—and how politics transformed cable TV.