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The Northampton Election, December 6, 1830, by J.M.W. Turner, c. 1830. A British election taking place in a town square with people waving banners and standing around.

The Tyranny of the Ballot

A man who wants everyone to know his views explains why he’s against voting in secret.
by Sydney Smith via Lapham’s Quarterly on January 1, 1879
Lethal injection table.
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Lethal Injection Is Not Based on Science

The history of the three-drug combo used in death-penalty executions. 
by Corinna Barrett Lain via HNN on April 29, 2025
Filmmaker Oliver Stone speaks to journalists following a hearing with the House Oversight Committee at the US Capitol on April 1, 2025, in Washington, DC.

Oliver Stone Goes to Washington

Legendary filmmaker Oliver Stone says we’re closer than ever to finally piecing together the mystery of November 22, 1963.
by Oliver Stone, Ed Rampell via Jacobin on April 18, 2025
Miami's skyline with high-rises under construction.

How Dreams of Buried Pirate Treasure Enticed Americans to Flock to Florida

1925 marked the peak of the Florida land boom. But false advertising and natural disasters thwarted many settlers’ visions of striking it rich.
by Greg Daugherty via Smithsonian on April 15, 2025
President John F. Kennedy's motorcade shortly before his assassination in Dallas.

What the New JFK Files Reveal About the CIA’s Secrets

A presidential lawyer and historian combed through the latest document dump so you don’t have to. Here’s what he found.
by James D. Robenalt via The Hive on March 21, 2025

The Meaning of Kony 2012

The Kony 2012 campaign pioneered a new form of online activism — one that served empire more than the people it claimed to help.
by Benjamin Fogel via Jacobin on March 9, 2025
Soldiers walking past a sign that says Fort Liberty.

Pete Hegseth Just Did the Funniest Thing Imaginable

It’s Fort Bragg again. So why are Confederate heritage groups so mad?
by Kevin M. Levin via Slate on February 12, 2025
Belle da Costa Greene.

The Hidden Story of J. P. Morgan’s Librarian

Belle da Costa Greene, a brilliant archivist, buried her own history.
by Hilton Als via The New Yorker on December 16, 2024
A painting of a large camera on a film set, surrounded by green screens.

Casual Viewing

Why Netflix looks like that.
by Will Tavlin via n+1 on December 16, 2024
Alice Rhinelander surrounded by well-dressed family members awaiting the jury verdict in Rhinelander v. Rhinelander.

How an Interracial Marriage Sparked One of the Most Scandalous Trials of the Roaring Twenties

Under pressure from his wealthy family, Leonard “Kip” Rhinelander claimed that his new wife, Alice Beatrice Jones, had tricked him into believing she was white.
by Bryan Greene via Smithsonian on November 20, 2024
A black and white photo of an American soldier on patrol in Kabul, Afghanistan, 2005.

God’s Directive

In the wake of the September 11 attacks, evangelical American missionaries followed military tanks into Afghanistan and Iraq to convert Muslims.
by Rozina Ali via New York Review of Books on October 31, 2024
Illustrations of a skeleton and an angel in a book.

This 19th-Century ‘Toy Book’ Used Science to Prove That Ghosts Were Simply an Illusion

“Spectropia” demystified the techniques used by mediums who claimed they could speak to the dead, revealing the “absurd follies of Spiritualism.”
by Vanessa Armstrong via Smithsonian on October 29, 2024

A Hundred-and-Nineteen-Year-Old Book That Explains Eric Adams

A collection of political sermons attributed to a crooked machine boss is a handy reference for New York City’s current political chaos.
by Eric Lach via The New Yorker on October 17, 2024
A ragpicker collects recyclable materials at a landfill.

Why Recycling Is Mostly Garbage

In two new books, the rise of recycling is a story of illusory promises, often entwined with disturbing political agendas.
by Daniela Blei via The New Republic on September 27, 2024
A photograph of the battlefield at Antietam.
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A Remote Reality

Depictions of Antietam couldn’t possible capture the magnitude of the battle’s horror.
by Stephen Budiansky via HNN on September 3, 2024
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An Early Case of Impostor Syndrome

Why were so many early European books laden with self-deprecation? Blame genre conventions.
by Katherine Churchill via HNN on August 27, 2024
John Andrew Jackson riding a galloping horse and tipping his hat.
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How Do We Tell a Tale of People Who Sought to Disappear?

The life of John Andrew Jackson — and the vacillating richness and scarcity of the archive.
by Susanna Ashton via HNN on August 13, 2024
Lieutenant William Calley leaving court with his attorney George Latimer.

Tracking Down Lieutenant Calley

How I learned the story of the My Lai Massacre.
by Seymour M. Hersh via seymourhersh.substack on August 1, 2024
Eugene V. Debs giving a speech on an American flag themed stage.

Did ‘Churchianity’ Sink American Socialism?

A new book blames institutional Protestantism for undermining a vibrant strain of Christian radicalism that swirled through the Gilded Age.
by Heath W. Carter via Commonweal on July 26, 2024
Still from Midnight Cowboy of a man with a gun in Times Square.

How the Movies Captured Times Square’s Grimy Golden Age

Times Square’s decline can be dated to the Depression, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that the bottom fell out.
by Nathaniel Rich via Current (The Criterion Collection) on July 25, 2024
Cover of "Excited Delirium," left, and author Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús, right.

The Racist, Xenophobic History of "Excited Delirium"

A new book takes on a diagnosis invented to cover up police killings: that men of color are “combusting as a result of their aggressiveness.”
by Julia Métraux, Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús via Mother Jones on July 23, 2024
A photograph of TJ Hicks running in the 1904 Olympics with his two coaches holding him upright.

How the 1904 Marathon Became One of the Weirdest Olympic Events of All Time

Athletes drank poison, dodged traffic, stole peaches and even hitchhiked during the 24.85-mile race in St. Louis.
by Ellen Wexler, Karen Abbott via Smithsonian on June 27, 2024
A poster for "The Gay Deceivers" of a naked man holding a pillow, with the tagline "Is he? Or isn't he? Only his draftboard and his girlfriend know for sure."

The Gay Deceivers Was an Early Landmark for Queer Cinema

This 1969 film offers a compelling context for queer cinema and culture prior to the 1970s.
by Ben Railton via The Saturday Evening Post on June 11, 2024
Star-Herb Medicines and Teas for all Diseases, 1923.

How Government Helped Birth the Advertising Industry

Advertising went from being an embarrassing activity to a legitimate part of every company’s business plans—despite scant evidence that it worked.
by Livia Gershon, Daniel Navon via JSTOR Daily on May 17, 2024
Séance with spirit manifestation, 1872, by John Beattie.

Immortalizing Words

Henry James, spiritualism, and the afterlife.
by Ashley C. Barnes via The Hedgehog Review on April 30, 2024
Alexandria Park School in Sydney, Australia, is built on Aboriginal land.

Overlooking the Past

Land acknowledgments amount to the hollow incantations of hollow people.
by David Eisenberg via Law & Liberty on April 15, 2024
A burning candle in front of the American flag.

The Origins of Conservatism’s ‘Gnostic’ Meme

You can thank Eric Voegelin for the right’s clichéd catchall critique for the left.
by Joshua Tait via The Bulwark on April 12, 2024
A photograph of two Guatemalan women infected with syphillis in U.S. experiements, their eyes covered by black bars.

The Hidden U.S. Experiments in Guatemala

The U.S. purposefully infected thousands of Guatemalans with sexually-transmitted diseases in the 40s and 50s. Their grandchildren still carry the trauma.
by Lydia Crafts via Process: A Blog for American History on April 9, 2024
Three men fight on a rooftop, above a large city on a river.

The Golden Age of the Paranoid Political Thriller

On the grand tradition of movies reflecting a deep distrust of those in charge.
by Keith Roysdon via CrimeReads on March 25, 2024
A racist political cartoon depicting Uncle Sam as an educator teaching racialized colonial subjects in areas recently conquered by the U.S. during the War of 1898, the year of the white supremacist coup and massacre in Wilmington, N.C. and the mass disenfranchisement of Black Americans by the Supreme Court.

Heather Cox Richardson Shows the Importance of Holding Right-Wing Criminals and Frauds Accountable

Richardson’s work is as much about the contradictions of our shared past as it is an urgent call to action around the current authoritarian crisis.
by William Horne via Bucks County Beacon on March 7, 2024
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