Excerpts

One obvious change occurred at around the turn of the 19th century, when the rapid expansion of the canning industry brought canned pumpkin to every market.

The pecan pie as we know it is very much a twentieth-century creation, so if you ever see a recipe entitled “Old South Pecan Pie,” you know it’s bogus.

Sixty-five years after Russell Lee photographed New Mexico homesteaders coping with the Depression, a Lee admirer visits the town for a fresh slice of life

Neither apples nor the pie originally came from America, but Americans have made this dish their own

Ever since Thoreau headed to Walden, our attention has been wandering.

To demand the freedom to mourn—not on the employer’s schedule, but in our own time—is to reject the cruel rhythms of the capitalist status quo.

Involuntarily committing people with serious mental illness, however well intended, has long served to remove them from society instead of providing treatment.

The right—and wrong—lessons of the Iraq War.

How the institution’s reactionary origins still leak into today’s film culture.

The philosophy that drives the GOP's attacks on government and how it has fueled some of our biggest problems.

A set of revered stone deities stolen from a temple in northwestern India can tell us much about our current reckoning with antiquities trafficking.

News organizations air lies from political figures more often than you’d think, but for very different reasons than Fox News.

A Harvard education professor explains how far we've come in answering some of the most important questions in education since the famous Coleman report.

In 1903 Mine Westbye moved to North Dakota to live a life "so quiet you almost feel afraid."

The vexed history of "Night Life" in the New Yorker.

The fate of Raleigh's 11 missing freedman's villages.

The 1958 civil rights protest by Black teens led to the end of segregation at lunch counters all over the state and inspired a wave of sit-ins across the country.

Does marijuana prohibition have racist origins? Where did ideas of “reefer madness” come from? This project looks to the historical record for answers.

More than just an upset, "Saving Private Ryan" losing the Best Picture Oscar to "Shakespeare in Love" changed how Academy Awards are won.

For many historians today, the present is forever trapped in the past and defined by the worst of it.

A seven-point memo proposing control of the global insulin market.

The fire of 1874 destroyed more than 80% of Black-owned property in Chicago. But Black people persisted and built vital cultural traditions and institutions.

Why a powerful House Republican wants to ban a common insurance practice.

Elkison v. Deliesseline presented a federal court with the question of whether a state could incarcerate and enslave a free subject of a foreign government.

An analysis of the factors that contributed to NYC's massive financial crisis in the 1970s, and the austere solutions that perpetuated it.

A zealot through and through, he ran the FBI like a religious sect.

For decades, conservatives were fine with sexually charged cross-dressing entertainment — so long as it reinforced traditional power structures.

A conversation with presidential biographers Jonathan Alter and Kai Bird.

The film “deliberately maligned the upper class,” according to a report that didn’t like the portrayal of Mr. Potter as a bad guy.

Many take the separation between science and politics for granted, but this view of science has its own political origins.

Clyde Bellecourt taught Native people that colonizing society is weak because of its sense of superiority.

Celebrating the Federal Reserve as a cockpit for economic steering conceals the reality of where power lies today.

The US government broke up AT&T's monopoly over the telecom industry through an antitrust case in 1984, leading to a transformation of communication.

She’s mostly remembered for one famous speech. Her actual legacy is far greater than that.

Female nurses served their country domestically and abroad by caring for soliders striken by the influenza pandemic.

George Kennan made hierarchy seem seductive.

The history of DIY transition offers one path toward what might come after, or in the place of, state-sanctioned care.

Why the truth is crucial, even it it means losing an American Indian hero.

Since the 1960s, border enforcement and deterrence policies have made migrants vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.

As two warring bone hunters sought to destroy each other, they laid the foundations for our knowledge of dinosaurs.

What does a statue dedicated to mothers reveal about women’s rights?

For nearly a century, Americans have been throwing the term around—without agreeing what that means.

The initial promise of Mexican factories in the 1960s gave way to impoverished communities and capital flight in search of higher profits.

In the late 1960s, Baltimore began demolishing Black neighborhoods to make room for an ill-fated expressway. Will the harm from the Highway to Nowhere ever be repaired?

Despite decades of Indigenous activism and resistance, UC Berkeley has failed to return the remains of thousands of Native Americans to tribes.

What is an industry-made disaster, and what is caused by natural factors like weather?

For members of the Hip Hop generation who came of age during the Black Power era, “reality rap” was an entry into the political power of Black history.

Norris, who dubbed herself the "Queen of Bohemia," exposed the injustices of post-Gilded Age New York City—by going undercover.

The U.S. Army's contributions to meteorology.

As AI drum machines embrace humanising imperfections, what does this mean for ‘real’ drummers and the soul of music?