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The Gods of Indian Country

How American expansion reshaped the religious worlds of both settlers and Native people.
by Jennifer Graber via Not Even Past on May 1, 2018

How the Log Cabin Became an American Symbol

We have the Swedes and William Henry Harrison to thank for the popularization of the log cabin.
by Andrew Belonsky via Mental Floss on April 19, 2018

A History of the Jerks: Bodily Exercises and the Great Revival

A digital archive of first-person accounts from the turn of the 19th century chronicling an unusual display of religious ecstasy.
by Douglas Winiarski via University of Richmond on April 9, 2018

Bang for the Buck

Three new books paint a more nuanced portrait of the American militias whose gun rights have been protected since the founding.
by Adam Hochschild via New York Review of Books on March 15, 2018

Was the Real Lone Ranger a Black Man?

The amazing true story of Bass Reeves, the formerly enslaved man who patrolled the Wild West.
by Thaddeus Morgan via HISTORY on February 1, 2018
Caroline and Charles Ingalls

Little House, Small Government

How Laura Ingalls Wilder’s frontier vision of freedom and survival lives on in Trump’s America.
by Vivian Gornick via The New Republic on November 16, 2017

Fannie Quigley, the Alaska Gold Rush's All-in-One Miner, Hunter, Brewer, and Cook

She used mine shafts as a beer fridge and shot bears to get lard for pie crusts.
by Tessa Hulls via Atlas Obscura on August 21, 2017

The Lesser Part of Valor

Preston Brooks, Greg Gianforte, and the American tradition of disguising cowardice as bravery.
by Adam Serwer via The Atlantic on May 26, 2017

Self-Righteous Devils: What Ozark Vigilantes of the 1880s Reveal About Modern America

The story of the Bald Knobbers is a terrifying parable about what happens when government fails and violence reigns.
by Lisa Hix via Collectors Weekly on February 24, 2017

The Lesser-Known History of African-American Cowboys

One in four cowboys was black. So why aren’t they more present in popular culture?
by Katie Nodjimbadem via Smithsonian on February 13, 2017

The Real Story Behind "Johnny Appleseed"

Johnny Appleseed was based on a real person, John Chapman, who was eccentric enough without the legends.
by Matthew Wills, William Kerrigan via JSTOR Daily on October 22, 2016

Little Government in the Big Woods

Melissa Gilbert's lost bid for Congress and the forgotten political history of 'Little House on the Prairie.'
by Mary Pilon via Longreads on July 1, 2016
Civil War generals Ambrose Burnside and Robert E. Lee, sporting the substantial beards.
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City Men on the Beard “Frontier”

A brief discussion of the fierce 19th century debates over beards, and how booming American cities created the perfect climate for all that facial hair to grow.
via BackStory on August 28, 2015
Photograph of Chief Iron Tail.

American Indians, Playing Themselves

As Buffalo Bill's performers, they were walking stereotypes. But a New York photographer showed the humans beneath the headdresses.
by Michelle Delaney via What It Means to Be American on January 27, 2015
A photograph of a Pony Express employee riding a horse.
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Cowboys and Mailmen

Debunking myths about the Pony Express.
via BackStory on December 7, 2012
A worker removes bottles of American-made Jack Daniel's whiskey from a shelf at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) Queen's Quay store in Toronto, Canada.
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The History Behind Canadian Boycotts of American Whiskey

A global marketplace has shaped the U.S. whiskey industry for a century, even as it brands itself distinctly American.
by E. Kyle Romero via Made By History on April 8, 2025
A house and people from the American frontier.

The Wild Blood Dynasty

What a little-known family reveals about the nation’s untamed spirit.
by Adam Begley via The Atlantic on May 14, 2024
People on a porch in Fort Verde, Arizona, 1886.

Arizona’s 1864 Abortion Law Was Made in a Women’s Rights Desert – Here’s What Life Was Like Then

Abortions happened in Arizona, despite a near-complete abortion ban enacted in 1864. But people also faced penalties for them, including a female doctor who went to prison.
by Calvin Schermerhorn via The Conversation on April 25, 2024
Collage of American Indian film characters.

Native Americans on the Silver Screen, From Wild West Shows to 'Killers of the Flower Moon'

How American Indians in Hollywood have gone from stereotypes to starring roles.
by Sandra Hale Schulman via Smithsonian on October 12, 2023
A painting of an American landscape with green hills and a river.

The Early Days of American English

How English words evolved on a foreign continent.
by Rosemarie Ostler via Lapham’s Quarterly on September 15, 2023
Chainlink fence in a desert with a danger sign warning of arsenic poison

The Toxic Legacy of the Gold Rush

Almost 175 years after the Gold Rush began, Californians are left holding the bag for thousands of abandoned mines.
by Leah Campbell via Gizmodo on May 15, 2023
A national Guardsmen crosses the street, the capital rotunda in the background.

The Common Defense

The National Guard, the true descendent of the citizen-soldier militia, has become a sad and incoherent shell of itself.
by Lucas Bernard via The American Conservative on April 3, 2023
Petroglyphs in southern Wyoming, probably dating to the early 17th century, include well-preserved images of horses and riders, depicted with riding equipment and shields.

Horse Nations

After the Spanish conquest, horses transformed Native American tribes much earlier than historians thought.
by Andrew Curry via Science on March 30, 2023
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.
by Caroline Fraser via New York Review of Books on September 29, 2022
A person holds up a "Don't Tread on Florida" poster at an August rally in Tampa featuring Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Marco Rubio.
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The ‘Florida Man’ is Notorious. Here’s Where the Meme Came From

The practice of seeing Florida’s people, culture and history in caricature form is deeply rooted in the state’s colonial past.
by Julio Capó Jr., Tyler Gillespie via Made By History on September 14, 2022
Illustration of Paxton Gang attacking indigenous people.

Colonial Civility and Rage on the American Frontier

A 1763 massacre by colonial settlers exposed the the irreconcilable contradictions of conquest by people concerned with civility.
by Matthew Wills, Nicole Eustace via JSTOR Daily on January 23, 2022
Black and white photo of the 1940 Chevrolet half-ton.

The Rugged History of the Pickup Truck

At first, it was all about hauling things we needed. Then the vehicle itself became the thing we wanted.
by Jeff MacGregor via Smithsonian on August 17, 2021
A family poses outside their homestead, somewhere out west, in the late 19th century.

How Personal Ads Helped Conquer the American West

That tradition of finding partners in the face of social isolation persists today.
by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie via Atlas Obscura on April 29, 2021
Illustration of Native Americans on horseback attacking a mail coach

How the U.S. Postal Service Forever Changed the West

A new book argues that mail service played a critical role in the U.S. government’s westward expansion and occupation of Native lands.
by Cameron Blevins, Laura Bliss via CityLab on April 21, 2021
A noose hanging in front of the Capitol.

Why America Loves the Death Penalty

A new book frames this country’s tendency toward state-sanctioned murder as a unique cultural inheritance.
by Josephine Livingstone via The New Republic on January 11, 2021
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