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Samuel Ringgold Ward and Frederick Douglass.

Frederick Douglass Thought This Abolitionist Was a 'Vastly Superior' Orator and Thinker

A new book offers the first full-length biography of newspaper editor, labor leader and minister Samuel Ringgold Ward.
A Metropolitan Museum official hands over a 13th-century wooden strut to Nepal’s archaeology department last year. Photograph: Aryan Dhimal/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock.

New York’s Met Museum Sees Reputation Erode Over Collection Practices

An investigation identified hundreds of artifacts linked to indicted or convicted traffickers. What does this mean for the future of museums?
Ron Desantis, his face partially covered by books, with soft gold lighting on his face and the book spines

The Forgotten Ron DeSantis Book

The Florida governor’s long-ignored 2011 work, "Dreams From Our Founding Fathers," reveals a distinct vision of American history.
Jackie Robinson wearing his baseball uniform.

Revisiting the Legacy of Jackie Robinson

The Christian, the athlete, and the activist.
1928 painting of a girl getting baptized in a pool, surrounded by a crowd on a farm.

Trouble in River City

Two recent books examine the idea of the Midwest as a haven for white supremacy and patriarchy.
Black-and-white glamour photo of Josephine Baker, smiling in her stage attire.

Josephine Baker Was the Star France Wanted—and the Spy It Needed

When the night-club sensation became a Resistance agent, the Nazis never realized what she was hiding in the spotlight.
Biggie Smalls posing for the camera, with three friends looking on from behind.

Behind the Scenes of Ready to Die

An intimate look at the creation of an iconic album.
Photograph of John Gunther, an American journalist.

The Book That Unleashed American Grief

John Gunther’s “Death Be Not Proud” defied a nation’s reluctance to describe personal loss.
Man Ray's photograph "Noire et Blanche," featuring a woman whose closed eyes and pointy features resemble those of an ebony sculpture she holds.

Man On A Mission

A review of ”Man Ray: The Artist and His Shadows” by Arthur Lubow.
Black and white photograph of Lucille Clifton.

Lucille Clifton and the Task of Remembering

The poet’s memoir Generations is both a chronicle of her ancestral lineage and lesson in the centrality of Black women to the story of American history.
The cover of the book "The Secret of Life"

Heels: A New Account of the Double Helix

How Rosalind Franklin, the crystallographer whose data were crucial to solving the structure of DNA, was written out of the story of scientific discovery.
Illustration of a ghost, resembling a woman figure.

Edith Wharton’s Bewitching, Long-Lost Ghost Stories

A reissued collection, long out of print, revives the author’s masterly stories of horror and unease.
Collage of a man's photograph within a cutout of another man

Searching for Mr. X

For eight years, a man without a memory lived among strangers at a hospital in Mississippi. But was recovering his identity the happy ending he was looking for?
Collage of strips of famous African American faces in a mechanical press.

Afropessimism and Its Discontents

A guide for the perplexed, the puzzled, and the politically confused.
Curt Flood posed with a baseball bat.

The Ballplayer Who Fought for Free Agency

For his talents on the diamond and his determination off of it, Curt Flood deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.
Benjamin Franklin reading

America’s Obsession With Self-Help

From “The Old Farmer’s Almanac” to “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” what do bestselling guides to self-improvement reveal about the United States?
107th U.S. Colored Troops posing for a picture

People, Not “Voices” or “Bodies,” Make History

We need to do far more than “give voice to the voiceless" to win justice.
Richard Wright at a typewriter

Richard Wright's Newly Uncut Novel Offers a Timely Depiction of Police Brutality

'The Man Who Lived Underground,' newly expanded from a story into a novel by the Library of America, may revise the seminal Black author's reputation.
Malcolm X

A Malcolm For Our Times

"The Dead are Arising" may be the best Malcolm X biography yet. But its author seems unsure of how to write about a religion outside the American mainstream.
Photo of the 1870 U.S. Census, with lines highlighted in orange, yellow, and green

The Strange Case of Booker T. Washington's Birthday

If Booker T. Washington never knew when he was born, how are we so sure about it now?
Helen Keller, circa 1954.

Did Helen Keller Really “Do All That”?

A troubling TikTok conspiracy theory questions whether Keller was “real.”
Artistic photo of Malcolm X

Malcolm’s Ministry

At the end of his remarkable, improbable life, Malcolm X was on the cusp of a reinvention that might have been even more significant than his conversion.
A hand holding a stethoscope and knife.

The Blackwell Sisters and the Harrowing History of Modern Medicine

A new biography of the pioneering doctors shows why “first” can be a tricky designation.
Photo of Dolly Parton smiling.

The United States of Dolly Parton

A voice for working-class women and an icon for all kinds of women, Parton has maintained her star power throughout life phases and political cycles.

The Weight of History

A former Navy lawyer speaks about his decision to leak classified information on detainees at the infamous prison of Guantanamo.

Bad Romance

The afterlife of Vivian Gornick's "The Romance of American Communism" shows that we bear the weight of dead generations—and sometimes living ones, too.

The Seminal Novel About the 1918 Flu Pandemic Was Written by a Texan

Katherine Anne Porter’s ‘Pale Horse, Pale Rider’ tells the tale of a pandemic she barely survived.

The Asian-American Canon Breakers

Proudly embracing their role as outsiders, a group of writer-activists set out to create a cultural identity—and a literature—of their own.

To Be Mary MacLane

In the early twentieth century, Mary MacLane’s genre-defying books earned the scorn of critics and the adoration of readers across the nation.

A Brief History of Mostly Terrible Campaign Biographies

“No harm if true; but, in fact, not true.”

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