Excerpts

The beauty parlor became a place of sociability for women in the twentieth century, partly aided by modern technology of hair drying.

Why did future members of the modernist literary movement darken their skin, speak fake Swahili, and board a British battleship?

Smudging state–industry distinctions and retelling conventional narratives.

How 30 years of U.S. policy ended in disaster.

American thinkers consider what the already occupied West could fund.

Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth transformed America’s pastime by becoming a new kind of star.

Our favorite artists may not be our favorite people.

Turns out you can tame inflation without triggering a recession. Will the Federal Reserve accept the good news?

"It's the story of a family who had been denied justice about a piece of land they owned for at least 160 years."

Robert D. Bullard reflects on the movement he helped to create.

Scholars and pundits are suddenly interested in the section disqualifying insurrectionists from offices. But text and history don't offer clear answers.

Characterised today by the noise of banging, buzzers, and the cries of inmates, solitary confinement was originally developed from Quaker ideas.

The divisive Confederate monument, the focus of the deadly “Unite the Right” rally, was melted down in secret and will become a new piece of public art.

A scholarly roundtable on Samuel Moyn's new book.

On the white Christian legacy of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI.

For centuries the study of optics and the use of invisibility in science fiction have developed side by side, each inspiring the other.

Tensions between Salem and Danvers were there from the start—contributing to the ensuing witch hysteria.

Supported and largely led by slaveholders, the American Revolution was also, paradoxically, a profound antislavery event.

It’s because the rapper’s life and work were a cascade of contradictions that we’re still trying to figure him out today.

The murder of independent Congo’s first prime minister, the subject of a new book, had lasting psychological effects on the whole continent.

The answer reveals grave robbing problems for America’s deceased leaders.

Who is counted by the census, how, and for what purpose, has changed a lot since 1790.

In her new book, ‘Prequel,’ she looks at a past moment of crisis that might help us understand both the threats we face today and how we can endure them.

The UAW's patient organizing cemented an alliance that would bear fruit for decades.

He expressed support for Israel's bloody invasion of Lebanon, saying the US would be similarly justified retaliating against Canadian cities for militant attacks.

What actually happened in one of the most disruptive episodes of the supposed Watergate scandal?

In Bush’s naïveté about the magic of elections, he ignored a crucial point about democracy.

In a new biography, the Velvet Underground front man embodies a New York that exists only in memory.

Louis Armstrong’s complicated relationship with New Orleans.

Two books argue that private equity created an economic order in which getting rich quickly preempts other values, undermining companies and evading the law.

His “Clash of Civilizations” essay in Foreign Affairs turned 30 this year. It was provocative, influential, manna for the modern right—and completely and utterly not true.

A 1990 law was meant to “expeditiously return” such items to Native Americans, but descendants are still waiting.

A conversation with the lead designer of the 1985 version of the Oregon Trail video game.

On the 85th anniversary of the first xerographic print, a collection of punk flyers from Cornell University provides an object lesson on anti-art.

Here’s why they are still fighting.

The murders of her Osage relatives for their oil wealth still reverberate in the life of Margie Burkhart, granddaughter of a central character in the new movie.

It is time to recognize the power that organized labor can wield to fight for environmental, economic and social justice.

A new biography examines the life of the abolitionist, newspaper editor, activist, and globetrotter.

To address these atrocities and treat Jewish victims, survivors, and families with dignity, we must confront Israel’s subjugation of Palestine.

How the gun became a cultural icon—and unmade America.

Was the American Revolution such a good idea?

Springsteen's albums offer a tragic-romantic view of the working class in Reagan-era America.

The musical culture of the New York metropolitan area, combined with themes of suburban life, suffuse the legends' music.

Twelfth-century peasants developed commons practices to survive domination. We could use them to reclaim our lives from capitalism.

In the 1940s, scholars struggled over truth in reporting, the marketplace of ideas, and the free press. Their deliberations are more relevant than ever.

President Biden’s SAVE plan isn’t going to rescue the tens of millions of Americans that together owe more than $1.7 trillion.

The abortionist Madame Restell is central to the story of how American women’s reproductive freedom was dismantled in the second half of the nineteenth century.

How family political dynasties in America came to be.

J. Edgar Hoover’s ascent within the FBI reveals the birth of an unprecedented surveillance apparatus that would survey US citizens for decades to come.

The complicated and visceral issue of how we preserve our history offers an opportunity for meaningful discourse.