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The Next Lost Cause?

The South’s mythology glamorized a noble defeat. Trump backers may do the same.
Statue of Francis Scott Key in San Francisco, knocked off its pedastal

whentheycamedown

A collaborative project that set out in the summer of 2020 to document the removal of monuments through both official and unofficial channels.

The Confederates Loved America, and They’re Still Defining What Patriotism Means

The ideology of the men who celebrated the United States while fighting for its dissolution is still very much alive.
Cover of the book These Truths by Jill Lepore.

Only Dead Metaphors Can Be Resurrected

Historical narratives of the United States have never not been shaped by an anxiety about the end of it all. Are we a new Rome or a new Zion?
Boston's Emancipation Memorial depicting a black man kneeling in front of Abraham Lincoln.

Black Bostonians Fought For Freedom From Slavery. Where Are The Statues That Tell Their Stories?

Contrary to the image of the kneeling slave, Black abolitionists did not wait passively for the "Day of Jubilee." They led the charge.
Still from a 1950s animated WHO film featuring a drawing of the globe and an hourglass pointing toward Egypt.

Of Plagues and Papers: COVID-19, the Media, and the Construction of American Disease History

The different ways news media approaches pandemic reporting.
partner

The Sting of ‘Thank You for Your Service’

The benefits that come with serving the country have withered in recent decades.
Farmworkers in a field.
partner

During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Immigrant Farmworkers Are Heroes

Our thanks should be recognizing the crucial role they play in our society.

In the Time of Monsters

Watchmen is a sophisticated inquiry into the ethical implications of its own form—the flash and bang, the prurience and violence of comic books.

The Loser King

Failing upward with Oliver North.
Superman comic illustration

Why Superheroes Are the Shape of Tech Things to Come

Superman et al were invented amid feverish eugenic speculation: what does the superhero craze say about our own times?
Illustration of Lincoln consulting with military figures in a tent.

Did Lincoln Really Matter?

What the Civil War tells us about who has the power to shape history.

Rambo Politics from Reagan to Trump

Trump links the assassination of Iranian General Soleimani to the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, positioning himself as Rambo, avenging American humiliation abroad.
Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson and the Declaration

Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence announced a new epoch in world history, transforming a provincial tax revolt into a great struggle to liberate humanity.

The Fight Over the 1619 Project Is Not About the Facts

A dispute between some scholars and the authors of NYT Magazine’s issue on slavery represents a fundamental disagreement over the trajectory of U.S. society.

The Remembered Past

On the beginnings of our stories—and the history of who owns them.

Land of the Free

The story of America is precisely the heroic story of pioneers who bring the American ideal again and again to the West.
Still from "Harriet" depicting Tubman holding a scared girl and pointing a shotgun.
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What ‘Harriet’ Gets Right About Tubman

In the 1850s, abolitionists, including black women, fought for freedom by force.

With a Brass Band Blaring, Artist Kehinde Wiley Goes Off to War with Confederate Statues

Kehinde Wiley unveils his new equestrian statue in Times Square. In December, it will be installed in Richmond, with those of Civil War generals nearby.

The Vietnam Myth That Gave Us All Those ‘Rambo’ Movies

For decades, conspiracy theorists have clung to the fiction that thousands of soldiers are being held captive in Asia.

A Brief History of Mostly Terrible Campaign Biographies

“No harm if true; but, in fact, not true.”

How Davy Crockett Became an American Legend

Was Davy Crockett a sellout? And does it matter?

The Fourth of July Has Always Been Political

The question is which vision of America it’s being used to advance.
Pride parade passes the Stonewall Inn.
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Stonewall's Legacy and Kwame Anthony Appiah's Misuse of History

The New York Times should have done a better job fact-checking Appiah’s essay. Philosophy may be allegorical. History isn’t.
Dr. Strange Love, from the Stanley Kubrick film of the same name

Watching the End of the World

The Doomsday Clock is set to two minutes to midnight. So why don't we make movies about nuclear war anymore?
Image of Sergeant Pete Thibodeau during the War on Terror.

The Sum of All Beards

How did facial hair win American men’s hearts and minds? Thank the War on Terror.

The Innovation Cult

The function of the "innovation" buzzword is to sustain the myth that business genius creates society’s wealth.

Counter-Histories of the Internet

Our ethics and desires can shape digital networks at least as forcefully as those networks influence us.
The Memorial Chapel of the Épinal American Cemetery in Lorraine, France.

How the U.S. Designed Overseas Cemeteries to Win the Cold War

Building large memorials to display power and dominance, the US government hoped to inspire Judeo-Christian and capitalist ideals with their cemeteries.
Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson: Our First Populist President

He never denounced slavery and was brutal towards American Indians, but remains a popular figure. Why?

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