Excerpts

What a whaling captain’s logbook can teach us about sperm whales and our oceans.

Seeking rural solitude, urban Southern Californians ventured into the Mojave Desert, armed with pickaxes and dreams but facing harsh landscapes and red tape.

On the Road with Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and John Burroughs.

Golden prairies of a Minnesota state park also hold the burial sites of Dakota people who died as the U.S. failed to fulfill treaties with Native Americans.

Fifty years after the military coup that brought down Salvador Allende and installed Pinochet as dicator, top secret US documents still need to be declassified.

"The Day After Trinity" and "The Strangest Dream" evacuate the mythical tropes of the tortured genius biopic that Hollywood loves to rehearse.

Songwriting credits since 1958, broken down by gender.

Many of the reasons for strikes now mirror the motives that workers had for walking off the job in decades past.

Decades of Supreme Court decisions have converted qualified immunity from a commonsense rule into a powerful doctrine that deprives people injured by police misconduct of recourse.

Malcolm Ross is unknown today. That’s too bad. This son of privilege has much to teach us about labor and civic leadership.

James Garfield is known primarily for being assassinated. But his life reveals the character of nineteenth-century America.

Miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo face few protections in the global rush for metals in energy transition—a toxic legacy from mining nuclear weapons.

The founding and funding of conservative media on college campuses in the 1960s.

Ron DeSantis wants to retrofit history to conform to conservative ideology.

David Grann’s sweeping history of crimes against the Osage people.

For decades, Philadelphia has struggled with poverty and gun violence. Social uplift organizations of the past have demonstrated that racial equity is the key.

The biopic starring Helen Mirren shies away from the moral implications of Golda Meir’s decisions.

To fully understand the deep roots of today’s white Christian nationalism, we need to go back at least to 1493.

A short history of hand-colored photos during the Civil War era.

A new book explores the Army’s struggles with race relations in the decades of civil rights and Black Power.

The actor and martial arts star also wanted to be regarded as a poet-philosopher.

The “syringe tides”—waves of used hypodermic needles, washing up on land—terrified beachgoers of the late 1980s. Their disturbing lesson was ignored.

In 2026, we will celebrate the nation’s semiquincentennial, and also the fifth anniversary of the January 6th uprising.

On Spiro Agnew's lasting legacy.

Yelling about schools gets people riled up. The outcome can be unpredictable.

Huey P. Newton has been mythologized and maligned since his murder 34 years ago. His family and friends offer an intimate look inside his life and mind.

Police have been using the snapshots in criminal investigations since the advent of commercial photography

A Filipino woman died after coming to the U.S. to be put on display at the 1904 World's Fair. A Smithsonian anthropologist likely took part of her brain.

The study of poverty has flourished in recent decades. Why haven’t the lives of the poor improved?

In the years before Roe v. Wade, maternity homes in the United States housed residents who, upon giving birth, often relinquished their children for adoption.

A prolific, meticulous artist, McCay created characters and storyscapes that inspired generations of cartoonists and animators.

Researchers are rediscovering the forgotten legacy of a pioneering Black scientist who conducted trailblazing research on the cognitive traits of animals.

Last month, descendants of copper miners and history enthusiasts alike gathered for the 117th annual Central Mine reunion service

Rethinking the twentieth century.

The free market used to be touted as the cure for all our problems; now it’s taken to be the cause of them.

The 1989 cult classic ushered in a darker, weirder, more experimental era for teen movies.

In his latest book, Michael Kazin argues that the Democrats have long sought to build a “moral capitalism.” Have they ever succeeded?

In “Spoiled,” the culinary historian Anne Mendelson takes aim at the American fallacy of fresh milk as a wonder food.

The straightforward way in which Google answers this query is a case study in how new science becomes accepted as fact in the modern era of rapid communication.

Police from as far away as Alabama were watching.

The movie has no interest in reducing the atomic bombings to a trivializing, exploitative spectacle, despite what some would want.

King offered Americans the choice between acting in accordance with the Constitution and resistance to change.  In many ways, we face the same choice today.

Historians should watch films like Judas and the Black Messiah as much for their filmmaking as their history making.

A wrestler, a Sunday school teacher, and a mystery man walk into a studio.

The earliest-known version of the dish was a winey, briny, bready casserole.

While most Jewish immigrants flocked to urban centers, a few -- like the Greenbergs -- tried their luck as homesteaders.

A historic 1908 conference transcended party and personal interest for the ‘common good.'

The Peshtigo fire ran through 17 towns and killed more than 1,000. It was worsened by a dry season and extreme winds — not dissimilar to what happened in Maui.

The Post interviewed March on Washington participants and voices from younger generations to tell the story of Aug. 28, 1963 and what it means now.

Suspicions have long swirled around unscrupulous campaign manager William Casey. We believe the evidence is now overwhelming.