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The evolution of man figures, redacted, crossed out.

The Conservative War on Education That Failed

A century ago, the most effective school-ban campaign in American history set the pattern: noise and fear, but not much change in what schools actually teach.
by Adam Laats via The Atlantic on November 23, 2021
A crowd gathered around a railroad track at the ceremony marking the completion of the first transcontinental railroad.

Breaking the Myth About America’s ‘Great’ Railroad Expansion

Historian Richard White on the greed, ineptitude and economic cost behind the transcontinental railroads, and the implications for infrastructure policy today.
by Richard White, Jake Blumgart via Governing on November 18, 2021
The Electoral Commission of 1877 holding a secret session by candle-light.
partner

The Electoral Count Act Is Broken. Fixing It Requires Knowing How It Became Law.

Trump tried to exploit flaws that were embedded in the law from the start.
by Rachel Shelden, Erik B. Alexander via Made By History on October 8, 2021
Residents of Marja returning to their village on motorcycles

The Lie of Nation Building

From the very beginning, the problem with the US involvement in Afghanistan lay essentially in the deficits in American democracy.
by Fintan O’Toole via New York Review of Books on September 8, 2021
Blood over image of Afghan security in Kabul

The War on Terror: 20 Years of Bloodshed and Delusion

From the beginning, the War on Terror merged red-hot vengeance with calculated opportunism. Millions are still paying the price.
by Tariq Ali via The Nation on September 7, 2021
Marine handing water to evacuees

The End Of Nation-Building

History offers a guide for why the American project in Afghanistan went wrong — and for the future of foreign engagement in the country.
by Timothy Nunan via Noema on August 24, 2021
partner

As Afghanistan Collapses, a Lament for ‘Repeating the Same Mistakes’

Officials who drove the decades-long war in Afghanistan look back on the strategic errors and misjudgments that led to a 20-year quagmire.
by Clyde Haberman via Retro Report on August 23, 2021
A cartoon by Thomas Nast, depicting Johnson as a king and the race riots that occurred at a Radical Republican convention in New Orleans.

‘The Failed Promise’ Review: The Mad King and the Lost Cause

Frederick Douglass and Republican legislators had high hopes for Andrew Johnson—but ended up impeaching him.
by Randall Fuller via The Wall Street Journal on August 20, 2021
A bullet whose path makes an audio file.

What I Learned While Eavesdropping on the Taliban

I spent 600 hours listening in on the people who now run Afghanistan. It wasn’t until the end of my tour that I understood what they were telling me.
by Ian Fritz via The Atlantic on August 19, 2021
Picture of the Helicopter leaving Saigon following the departure from Vietnam.

The Ides of August

Sarah Chayes describes her experiences in Afghanistan and who's to blame for the problems today.
by Sarah Chayes via Sarah Chayes on August 15, 2021
Cover of amateur photography handbook

Say Cheese! How Bad Photography Has Changed Our Definition of Good Pictures

The changes in popular photography.
by Ben Marks via Collectors Weekly on July 28, 2021
Space Shuttle Challenger explosion

How Legendary Physicist Richard Feynman Helped Crack the Case on the Challenger Disaster

Kevin Cook on the warnings NASA ignored, with tragic results.
by Kevin Cook via Literary Hub on June 9, 2021
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt at his desk.

FDR’s Second 100 Days Were Cooler Than His First 100 Days

Let's talk about the period when Roosevelt actually created the modern welfare state.
by Jordan Weissmann via Slate on May 1, 2021
A highway sign on Route 1 points the way to Soul City.

The Lost Plan for a Black Utopian Town

Soul City in North Carolina was designed to build Black wealth and address racial injustice. Then its opponents lined up.
by Divya Subramanian via The New Republic on March 17, 2021
Artistic rendering of a sheet of newspaper with people crossed out, flowing above people working menial jobs whose heads are also crossed out, working next to signs that read "Sorry."

On Atonement

News outlets have apologized for past racism. That should only be the start.
by Alexandria Neason via Columbia Journalism Review on January 28, 2021
Children receiving a vaccine.

Throughout History, Mass Vaccine Rollouts Have Been Beset by Problems

As the country scrambles to distribute COVID-19 vaccines, the process has been hindered by many of the same issues that impeded other mass vaccination rollouts.
by Dugan Arnett via Boston Globe on January 10, 2021

On the Insidious ‘Laziness Lie’ at the Heart of the American Myth

Devon Price wonders why we equate sloth with evil.
by Devon Price via Literary Hub on January 6, 2021
Doorkeeper at a meeting of the United Mine Workers of America in Wheelwright, Kentucky.

Before Operation Dixie

What the failed Southern labor movement teaches us about the rightward shift in US politics.
by Joe William Trotter Jr. via Dissent on December 16, 2020
painting of Henry Adams

What Henry Adams Understood About History’s Breaking Points

He devoted a lifetime to studying America’s foundation, witnessed its near-dissolution, and uncannily anticipated its evolution.
by Dan Chiasson via The New Yorker on November 30, 2020
Harry S. Truman holding up a newspaper with the erroneous headline "Dewey Defeats Truman"

Why Americans Will Never Turn Against Polling

Failures inspire distrust of pollsters and calls for more shoe-leather reporting. But by the next election, we always come running back.
by Rebecca Onion, W. Joseph Campbell via Slate on November 5, 2020

Writing a History of a Pandemic During a Pandemic

Jon Sternfeld on collective memory and history as instruction.
by Jon Sternfeld via Literary Hub on September 22, 2020
People in formal wear sitting in chairs, listening to a person behind a desk

Will We Ever Get Rid of the Electoral College?

The system that is nobody’s first choice.
by Michael Kazin via The Nation on September 22, 2020

How the Failures of the 1919 Versailles Peace Treaty Set the Stage for Today’s Anti-Racist Uprisings

In 1920, like 2020, race became the pivot of a historic turning point.
by Elizabeth Thompson via The Conversation on August 3, 2020
Woman walking past a mural of Frederick Douglass
partner

Lessons for Sustaining Black Businesses After a Crisis

Private coalitions alone aren’t enough to address racial wealth gaps.
by Alyssa Ribeiro via Made By History on July 13, 2020
Donald Trump giving a speech in front of a large photo of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

‘The Most Ignorant and Unfit’: What Made America’s Worst Ever Leader?

The real challenge is not simply to replace Trump, but to fix a system that produces, promotes, and protects the toxicity that defines his presidency.
by David Rothkopf via New York Review of Books on July 3, 2020
A doctor treating an AIDS patient
partner

What the Bungled Response to HIV Can Teach Us About Dealing With Covid-19

Politics, public health and a pandemic. What we didn’t learn from HIV.
by Clyde Haberman via Retro Report on July 1, 2020
A political cartoon

The New Deal and Recovery

The first in a series of posts to offer evidence casting doubt on the view that New Deal programs ended the Great Depression.
by George Selgin via Alt-M on June 12, 2020
partner

We’ve Forgotten the Worst President in American History

Could Donald Trump really rival James Buchanan?
by Ted Widmer via Made By History on May 26, 2020

Why Humanity Will Probably Botch the Next Pandemic, Too

A conversation with Mike Davis about what must be done to combat the COVID-19 pandemic – and all the other monsters still to come.
by Mike Davis, Eric Levitz via Intelligencer on April 30, 2020
Diagram and article about Dunlap Creek Bridge

Tom Paine’s Bridge

We do not often think of Paine as a revolutionary inventor. But in a very real sense, that is what he believed himself to be.
by Edward G. Gray via Commonplace on April 16, 2020
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