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When Memphis Fell for a Pyramid Scheme

The Great American Pyramid was supposed to give the Tennessee city an architectural landmark for the ages. Instead, it got a very large sporting goods store.
by Martha Park via CityLab on January 29, 2020
Soldiers carrying a wounded soldier to a helicopter for evacuation.

Confidential Documents Reveal U.S. Officials Failed to Tell the Truth About the War in Afghanistan

For nearly two decades, US leaders have sounded a constant refrain: We're making progress in Afghanistan. They weren't, documents show, and they knew it.
by Craig Whitlock via Washington Post on December 9, 2019

Jefferson’s Doomed Educational Experiment

The University of Virginia was supposed to transform a slave-owning generation, but it failed.
by Annette Gordon-Reed via The Atlantic on November 10, 2019
Picture of the Challenger Tragedy.
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Lessons From the Challenger Tragedy

Normalization of deviance is a useful concept that was developed to explain how the Challenger disaster happened.
via Retro Report on October 29, 2019
Leland Stanford, oil painting by French artist Ernest Meissonier, 1881. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Was Leland Stanford a ‘Magnanimous’ Philanthropist or a ‘Thief, Liar, and Bigot?’

The railroad baron and governor of California was starkly contradictory and infamously disruptive.
by Roland De Wolk via What It Means to Be American on October 17, 2019

The Obamanauts

What is the defining achievement of Barack Obama?
by Corey Robin via Dissent on October 7, 2019

Mike's Big Ditch

The failed canal project that could have saved cities like Youngstown, Ohio.
by Vince Guerrieri via Belt Magazine on August 28, 2019

How Jamestown Abandoned a Utopian Vision and Embraced Slavery

In 1619, wealthy investors overthrew the charter that guaranteed land for everyone.
by Paul Musselwhite via Zócalo Public Square on August 15, 2019
Glowing white "No" against a red background.

“Perhaps We’re Being Dense.” Rejection Letters Sent to Famous Writers

Some kind, some weird, some unbelievably harsh.
by Emily Temple via Literary Hub on June 19, 2019

Eric Hobsbawm, the Communist Who Explained History

Hobsbawm saw his political hopes crumble. He used that defeat to tell the story of our age.
by Corey Robin via The New Yorker on May 9, 2019
Richard Holbrooke and two images of people carrying weapons of war.

The End of the American Century

What the life of Richard Holbrooke tells us about the decay of Pax Americana.
by George Packer via The Atlantic on April 10, 2019

Oklahoma Was Never Really O.K.

A new production exposes the darkness that’s always been at the heart of the musical — and the American experiment.
by Frank Rich via Vulture on April 2, 2019

We Built a Broken Internet. Now We Need to Burn It to the Ground.

Silicon Valley veteran Mike Monteiro explains how designers destroyed the world.
by Mike Monteiro via BuzzFeed News on March 31, 2019
A nurse standing by a patient's bed during the Spanish Flu.

Did We Forget to Memorialize Spanish Flu Because Women Were the Heroes?

Sure, it came on the heels of World War I, but it was way more deadly.
by Rebecca Onion via Slate on February 18, 2019

Ulysses Grant’s Forgotten Fight for Native American Rights

The President and his Seneca friend Ely Parker wanted Indians to gain citizenship, but their efforts are mostly lost to history.
by Mary Stockwell via Zócalo Public Square on January 7, 2019

William Faulkner Was Really Bad at Being a Postman

Good thing he had other talents.
by Emily Temple via Literary Hub on September 25, 2018
Illustration of money burning

Obituary for a Billion-Dollar Boondoggle

Nearly two decades ago, historians embraced a hugely wasteful federal education program. It’s past time to reckon with that.
by Sam Wineburg via The Chronicle of Higher Education on September 16, 2018
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Biosphere 2: A Faulty Mars Survival Test Gets a Second Act

In 1991, eight people sealed themselves inside a giant glass biosphere to practice space living. By the time they emerged, they had “suffocated, starved and went mad.”
via Retro Report on August 3, 2018

The President Without a Party

The trials of Jimmy Carter.
by Michael Kazin via The Nation on July 5, 2018
Chinese premier Zhou Enlai and Indonesian president Sukarno aboard a cruise on the Nile River, Cairo, July 1965.

The Truth About the Killing Fields

A trio of books depict the true narrative of the massacres within Indonesia in 1965.
by Margaret Scott via New York Review of Books on June 28, 2018
Black and white photograph of workers of various affiliations march together at a 1946 May Day parade in New York City, holding signs about "world labor unity."

Welcome to Operation Dixie, the Most Ambitious Unionization Attempt in the U.S.

Southern segregation, racism and a militarized police meant the plan was destined to fail.
by Meagan Day via Medium on May 8, 2018
Paul Bremmer at a desk, signing his name on a letter.

Paul Bremer, Ski Instructor

Learning to shred with the Bush Administration’s Iraq War fall guy.
by Aaron Gell via Task & Purpose on March 26, 2018
Parents with four daughters.

Parenting for the “Rough Places” in Antebellum America

Jane Sedgwick’s evolving ideas about her children’s natures and her ability to shape them reflected an emerging American skepticism of the perfectibility.
by Erin Bartram via Commonplace on March 1, 2018
Soldiers in the 15th New York.

Retracing Du Bois’ Missteps

A historian probes the ‘tragedy’ of the famed scholar's failed WWI history.
by Colleen Walsh via Harvard Gazette on February 22, 2018

Arthur Mervin, Bankrupt

An 18th-century novel explores how American society handles capitalism's collateral damage — and who deserves a second chance.
by Katherine Gaudet via Commonplace on January 1, 2018
The rebuilt Blennerhassett mansion.

Paradise Lost

Aaron Burr spoke of far-flung fortune, and then the Blennerhassetts’ West Virginia Eden went up in flames.
by Zack Harold via Lapham’s Quarterly on November 29, 2017

Hating on Herbert Hoover

Hoover was a brilliant manager, a wizard of logistics, and an effective humanitarian. Why do we remember him as a failure?
by Nicholas Lemann via The New Yorker on October 23, 2017
Drawing of Swedish colonists landing on the Atlantic shores of Delaware during the 1600s.

America’s Forgotten Swedish Colony

For nearly 20 years in the 17th century, Sweden had a little-known colony that spanned parts of Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
by Evan Andrews via HISTORY on July 25, 2017

The Miseducation of Henry Adams

Henry Adams's classic autobiography speaks to concerns of privilege, failure, and progress in his rapidly changing world.
by Michael Lindgren via The Millions on June 30, 2017
Doctors performing a lobotomy while others watch.
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Lobotomy: A Dangerous Fad's Lingering Effect on Mental Illness Treatment

From the 1930s to the 1950s a radical surgery — the lobotomy — would forever change our understanding and treatment of the mentally ill.
by Barbara Dury, Margaret M. Ebrahim via Retro Report on April 16, 2017
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