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Portrait of George Washington bathed in light while his enslaved personal servant, William Lee, is behind him in the shadows.

George and Martha Washington Enslaved 300 People. Let’s Start With Their Names

The man who supposedly never told a lie figured out how to stretch the truth when it came to human bondage.

Now Do Lincoln

Protesters are tearing down statues of Columbus and other villains of history. The true test will come when they reckon with their heroes.

Take the Confederate Names Off Our Army Bases

It is time to remove the names of traitors like Benning and Bragg from our country’s most important military instillations.
Statue of George Washington with an American flag tied to his face to cover his nose and mouth, like a covid mask or a gag.

Direct Action and the Rejection of Monumental History

As people have gathered across the country to oppose police violence, they have targeted statues, monuments, and buildings commemorating white supremacy.

History Won’t Save Us

Why the battle for history must be won in the here and now.
George Washington on the cover of Alexis Coe's "You Never Forget Your First."

A New Book About George Washington Breaks All the Rules on How to Write About George Washington

A cheeky biography of the first president pulls no punches.

Before And After

The allegations against Michael Jackson make listening to his songs a struggle, one that resists the comfort those songs once provided.

Who Speaks for Crazy Horse?

The world’s largest monument is decades in the making and more than a little controversial.

Moral Courage and the Civil War

Monuments ask us to look at the past, but how they do it exposes crucial aspects of the present.

A Brief History of the History Wars

Conservative uproar over the 1619 Project is just the most recent clash in a battle over how we should understand America’s past.
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Rethinking the Construction of Ronald Reagan's Legacy

Conservatives created a rosy image of Reagan to further their political project.

America Is Not Rome. It Just Thinks It Is

Anxieties about Trump’s presidency are the expression of a tradition as venerable as the United States itself.

All the Presidents’ Librarians

Presidential libraries are too important for historians to ignore.
Sign for the Silicon Valley Financial Center.

The Hidden History of How the Government Kick-Started Silicon Valley

It’s time to move past the tech sector’s creator myths.

The Lincoln Memorial as a Pyramid? That Wasn’t the Craziest Idea Pitched a Century Ago

Congress had the final say on the design for the slain president’s monument. The competition was intense.
Robert E. Lee statue

Mistaken Ruling over Lee and Jackson Statues Extends Charlottesville Harm

The Lee and Jackson statues were erected not to mourn their deaths, but to glorify their character.
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How New York’s New Monument Whitewashes the Women’s Rights Movement

It offers a narrow vision of the activists who fought for equality.

The Gay, Black Civil Rights Hero Opposed to Affirmative Action

How would Bayard Rustin be judged today?
Sylvia Plath smiling outdoors.

What We Don’t Know About Sylvia Plath

On revelations from a chance graveside encounter.

In "The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda," Ishmael Reed Revives an Old Debate

If “Hamilton” is subversive, the mischievous Reed asks, what is it subverting?
Film still of Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch.

The Contested Legacy of Atticus Finch

Lee’s beloved father figure was a talking point during the Kavanaugh hearings and is now coming to Broadway. Is he still a hero?
Malcolm X.

The Missing Malcolm X

Our understanding of Malcolm X is inextricably linked to his autobiography, but newly discovered materials force us to reexamine his legacy.
Painting of the Roman Senate.

Rome's Heroes and America's Founding Fathers

Why the statesmen of the Roman Republic had such an influence on the patriots of the Revolutionary era.
Historical marker in Memphis telling the history of Nathan Bedford Forrest

Naming the Enslaved, Reconciling the Past in Memphis

The roll call for the names of 74 African Americans sold into slavery by Nathan Bedford Forrest in Memphis was solemn.

MLK: What We Lost

50 years after King's death, his image has been transformed and stripped of its radicalism.

Not Even Trump Wants to Praise Robert E. Lee

Most of President Donald Trump's 20th-century predecessors expressed profound admiration for Confederate general Robert E. Lee.
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Progressives and the Court

A response to Samuel Moyn’s “Resisting the Juristocracy.”
The Alamo.
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Once Again, Texas’s Board of Education Exposed How Poorly We Teach History

We’re not equipping children to become good citizens.
Artistic photo for black history

The Trouble With Uplift

A curiously inflexible brand of race-first neoliberalism has taken root in American political discourse.

My Fellow Prisoners

The grand lesson of John McCain's life should be that heroic politics is a broken politics.

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