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Why the History of the Vast Early America Matters Today

There is no American history without the histories of Indigenous and enslaved peoples. And this past has consequences today.
John Henry swinging a hammer, with the steam drill behind him.

John Henry and the Divinity of Labor

Variations in the legend of a steel-driving man tell us about differing American views of the value and purpose of work.
Old cars piled up under a bridge overpass.

New York: The Invention of an Imaginary City

How nostalgic fantasies about the “authentic” New York City obscure the real-world place.
Destruction from the Tulsa Race Massacre, 1921.

Reflections on the Artifacts Left Behind From the Tulsa Race Massacre

Objects and documents, says the Smithsonian historian Paul Gardullo, offer a profound opportunity for reckoning with a past that still lingers.

Why Confederate Lies Live On

For some Americans, history isn’t the story of what actually happened; it’s the story they want to believe.
Vietnamese immigrants parading the flag of the Republic of Vietnam during the Tet festival at a North American Little Saigon.

The South Vietnamese Flag and Shifting Representations of the Vietnamese American Experience

The sight of the flag on January 6, 2021 has aroused curiosity and criticism. Missing, however, is the multiplicity of its symbolism to Vietnamese Americans.

What Does It Mean to Build—And Preserve—a George Floyd Memorial?

How do we choose what we remember?
The front page of the Chicago Defender on August 2, 1919.

The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project

Why are Chicago’s race riots of 1919 overlooked in the city’s collective memory? A new project tells the stories of the 38 killed, and the legacy of racism in the U.S.
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?
Vienna’s plague column; the AIDS quilt; Mexico City’s Memorial to Victims of Violence; Berlin’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

How Will We Remember This?

A COVID memorial will have to commemorate shame and failure as well as grief and bravery.
Roundabout at the George Floyd memorial, at the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue.

George Floyd and a Community of Care

At E. 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis, a self-organizing network explores what it means to construct and maintain a public memorial.
Helen Keller, circa 1954.

Did Helen Keller Really “Do All That”?

A troubling TikTok conspiracy theory questions whether Keller was “real.”
Yearbook photo of a an African American girl, in front of newspaper headlines and pictures of her as an adult

Meet Claudette Colvin, the 15-Year-Old Who Came Before Rosa Parks

Claudette Colvin is a Civil Rights hero you've probably never heard of. In 1955, she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat, months before Rosa Parks.
John Ossoff.

The Politics of Nostalgia

Nostalgia is not merely reductive; it is also productive.
photograph of a woman from a carpeta

A New Photo Exhibit Looks at Decades of FBI Surveillance on American Citizens

A new book shares a cautionary tale of the American surveillance state.
The Pfizer headquarters sign.
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Years of Medical Abuse Make Black Americans Less Likely to Trust the Coronavirus Vaccine

Reckoning with our past is crucial to getting buy-in for the vaccine.

Washington is Named for a President who Owned Slaves. Should It Be?

What's behind the name of the state? And who was our first president, really?

Writing a History of a Pandemic During a Pandemic

Jon Sternfeld on collective memory and history as instruction.
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Women's Clubs and the "Lost Cause"

Women's clubs were popular after the Civil War among white and Black women. But white clubwomen used their influence to ingrain racist curriculum in schools.

History, Civil Rights and the Original Cancel Culture

The initial movement to build memorials to the Confederacy and its supposed “lost cause” were the original cancel culture.

The Forever War Over War Literature

A post-9/11 veteran novelist explores a post-Vietnam literary soiree gone bad, and finds timeless lessons about a contentious and still-evolving genre.

The Question of Monuments

Despite our long history of interrogating the memorial landscape, no movement has been able to dislodge it.

Buffalo’s Vanished Maritime Past

The city was once a bustling and infamous Great Lakes port. How should it be remembered?
"Defining the '90s Music Canon" over TLC and Spice Girls album covers.

Defining the ’90s Music Canon

Which songs will future generations use to characterize the decade?
Two statues next to each other

Confederates in the Capitol

The National Statuary Collection announced the unification of the former slave economy’s emotional heartland with the heart of national government.

An Oral History of The Onion’s 9/11 Issue

Immediately after 9/11, humorists struggled with what many called ‘the death of irony.’ Then ‘The Onion’ returned and showed everyone the way

The Power of Empty Pedestals

After Governor Northam announced its removal, two Richmond historians reflect on the legacy of the Lee Monument.

The Living History of Juneteenth, Our Next National Holiday

A celebration of emancipation in Texas is taking hold in the minds of Americans everywhere.

The History That James Baldwin Wanted America to See

For Baldwin, the past had always been bent in service of a lie. Could a true story be told?
6 Black Americans celebrating Juneteenth in 1900.

Reunion, Juneteenth and the Meaning of the Civil War

What would it mean to define the Civil War as a necessary and crucial final step in the long, even more tragic history of slavery in America?

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