Excerpts

Left-wing intellectuals' early responses to the 9/11 terror attacks.

The origin stories of Simon & Schuster, Random House, and Farrar, Sraus and Giroux.

A look at the long history of censorship in public school yearbooks.

On Albert Barnes’ massive acquisition of Chaim Soutine's artworks in the early 1900s.

How a fringe libertarian belief in monetary collapse inspired a 1970s literature of survivalism.

On the enduring influence of one of the genre's most iconic drum riffs.

A new myth appeared during the presidential campaign of Andrew Jackson.

The most consequential shift that year was not one of battle lines but of ideology.

A writer looks back at the book that shaped her understanding of girlhood, body, and shame.

Restoring stability to American politics will require reviving an age-old concept: common ground.

The transnational nature of America's fight for independence.

By 1943, the Girl Scouts had a presence in every Japanese American internment camp.

Those who sought to modernize and reform prisons have expanded them in the process and more permanently entrenched a racialized carceral state.

How a son of European immigrants fought to keep Indian immigrants out of America.

On the inherent contradictions behind the American revolutionary dream.

The last American crisis over civilian-military relations ended with a general’s historic choice.

On the hundredth anniversary of Tennessee v. Scopes.

The rise of remote work is only the latest in a long line of challenges that US business districts have faced. This time, cities have a chance to do it right.

The story of how corruption became legal in America isn't just about memos, movements, and legal strategies.

On the legacy of the United States' involvement in the Spanish-American War and the Philippine Revolution.

Little Crow was one of the leaders of the Dakota Uprising of 1862, a conflict that began, as so many Indian wars did, because treaty rights were being ignored.

Debt is the almost singular through line behind every major financial crisis.

Contrary to the story being told in textbooks, media, and museums, the police were not neutral bystanders.

In the 1970s, corporate America struck back at the forces attempting to rein it in. One of their tactics was a public service announcement.

Columbus lives on as a political and cultural symbol—hero, villain, myth—revealing how belief, not fact, shapes history.

How the history of the anti-mask and anti-vaccination movements hang together.

Sarah Curtis: “Maybe we’ve just learned what my teenage daughter does not yet fully know: that to be held to a law is often to be loved.”

Unpacking the complexities surrounding Native authenticity.

Unpacking the sensationalist, and occasionally biased, work of Richard Harding Davis.

What happened after West Texas State College desegregated its football team in the 1960s.

A memoir explores L.A.'s political culture after the Rodney King beating.

The use of the punitive tactic exploded a century after US officials had deemed it too torturous.

The country is losing neighbourhood orchards—and a connection to its origins.

When Bruce Lee met Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, he was still known as Lew Alcindor, the most hyped young basketball star in history.

In the mid-19th century, governments on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border set out to recast North America’s political landscape.

The Second Italo-Ethiopian War and the Spanish Civil War offered Melva L. Price an opportunity to examine the links between racism and fascism.

We must see the world as actors of the past did: through a foggy windshield, not a rearview mirror, facing a future of radical uncertainty.

On the groundbreaking work of the Japanese photographer who made Washington state his home.

A Black socialist magazine urges solidarity and action in 1919.

Jack Kerouac, Malcolm Cowley, and the difficult birth of "On the Road."

On Ralph Waldo Emerson, his childhood in Boston, and his thoughts on mortality.

Revisiting a turning point in the history of Israel’s occupation.

An oral history of the coverage: what the United States attempted to cover up.

It wasn’t the music that drew them, but an intellectual celebrity: Frank Meyer.

The 21st century American city was forged in the embers of the 1970s arson wave.

“Horses were a part of the daily fabric of life for many enslaved Black people.”

Elbridge Ayer Burbank’s haunting paintings capture a likeness that was only ever real from the vantage point of a White man with a gun, canvas, or camera.

The emotional roller coaster that changed the course of the Civil Rights Movement.

Reflecting on his decades-long career, the historian considers what his field of study owes to the public.

On the grim legacy of Ronald Reagan.