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historical amnesia

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Black and white picture of 7 scientists around a table. In the back, a poster of the Saturn Rocket is visible.
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The Forgotten History of Nazi Immigration to the U.S.

Canada's politicians accidentally honored a Nazi immigrant. The U.S. has frequently done the same.
by Claire E. Aubin via Made By History on October 12, 2023
The aftermath of the UpStairs Lounge fire on June 25, 1973.

50 Years Later, the UpStairs Lounge Fire Is More Important to Remember Than Ever

The arson attack on a New Orleans nightclub was the largest massacre of queer people in 20th-century America—and it remains relevant to our present moment.
by Andrew Sciallo via The Nation on June 22, 2023
A roll of cotton thread in the shape of an eye.

Slavery and the Guardian: The Ties That Bind Us

There is an illusion at the centre of British history that conceals the role of slavery in building the nation. Here’s how I fell for it.
by David Olusoga via The Guardian on March 28, 2023
2 African American women in front of a mural of trade ships and a Black pianist on ocean waves.

Slave Money Paved the Streets. Now This Posh RI City Strives to Teach Its Past.

Many don’t realize Newport, Rhode Island launched more slave trading voyages than anywhere else in North America.
by Asher Lehrer-Small via The 74 on July 20, 2022
People standing in line at a detention center, watched by an enforcement officer.

America’s Long History of Imprisoning Children

Through slavery, Indian boarding schools, Japanese internment, mass incarceration, and anti-Communist wars against civilian populations in Latin America.
by Laura Briggs via Literary Hub on June 19, 2020

Donald Trump, The Resistance, and the Limits of Normcore Politics

There’s no returning to a golden age of American democracy that never existed.
by Matthew Yglesias via Vox on July 3, 2018
A picture of the White House

Forget About It

Warnings against "normalizing" outrageous political acts misstate the problem. It’s never the immediate present that gets normalized — it’s the not-so-distant past.
by Corey Robin via Harper’s on April 1, 2018

The Myth of the Kindly General Lee

The legend of the Confederate leader’s heroism and decency is based in the fiction of a person who never existed.
by Adam Serwer via The Atlantic on June 4, 2017

Hillary Clinton Goes Back to the Dunning School

How do you diagnose the problem of racism in America without understanding its actual history?
by Ta-Nehisi Coates via The Atlantic on January 26, 2016
Library card catalog card reading "Forgetfulness: see memory."

Historical Amnesias: An Interview with Paul Connerton

“The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.”
by Paul Connerton, Sina Najafi, Jeffery Kastner via Cabinet on June 30, 2011

Remembering One of America’s First Modern School Shootings, 50 Years Later

A teacher tells the story of 1974’s Olean, New York High School murders.
by Sally Ventura via Literary Hub on June 23, 2025
Conservative protesters hold signs and flags at a Tea Party protest.

Lone Star Futures

Texas might have been a place to start a conversation about widening the scope of civil liberties, but it has also been a place where those liberties end.
by Emma Pask via Public Books on June 19, 2025

How to Not Get Poisoned in America

"We should go back into history and ask: Why did we need the federal Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906?"
by Deborah Blum, Talia Lavin via The Sword And the Sandwich on April 30, 2025
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
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The History of Why Raw Milk Regulation is Necessary

In the 19th century, tens of thousands of babies died every year of gastroenteritis.
by Carla Cevasco via Made By History on April 29, 2025
Ken Burns speaking into microphone (left) and Donald Trump (right).

Ken Burns, Donald Trump, and the Lies that Bring Us Together

It may sound counterintuitive, but Ken Burns’ version of U.S. history actually has quite a bit in common with Trump’s version.
by Akim Reinhardt via 3 Quarks Daily on February 24, 2025
A group of indigenous Pacific Islanders forced to work on a sugar plantation, with a white overseer in the background.

How ‘Blackbirders’ Forced Tens of Thousands of Pacific Islanders Into Slavery After the Civil War

The decline of Southern industries paved the way for plantations in Fiji and Australia, where victims of “blackbirding” endured horrific working conditions.
by Shoshi Parks via Smithsonian on December 5, 2024
Photo of 5 skeletons controlling panels.

Notes from the Cold War Underground

The weapons infrastructure of the Cold War is now getting rented out on Airbnb or memorialized as patriotic kitsch.
by Emily Harnett via The Baffler on October 22, 2024
Migrants, a family of Mexicans, on the road with tire trouble in California in 1936.

Over 1 Million Were Deported to Mexico Nearly 100 Years Ago. Most of Them Were US Citizens.

A new California bill would commemorate 'a dark part of our American history' known as the Mexican 'repatriation' of the 1930s.
by Tyche Hendricks via KQED on August 29, 2024
Mural of Harriet Tubman with arm outstretched

Harriet Tubman and the Most Important, Understudied Battle of the Civil War

Edda L. Fields-Black sets out to restore the Combahee River Raid to its proper place in Tubman’s life and in the war on slavery.
by Eric Herschthal via The New Republic on February 23, 2024
Gloved hand holding COVID-19-shaped dandelion

Did the Year 2020 Change Us Forever?

The COVID-19 pandemic affected us in millions of ways. But it evades the meanings we want it to bear.
by Adam Gopnik via The New Yorker on February 19, 2024
The San Francisco 49ers running onto a football field led by their mascot, a gold prospector.

Who Were the Real 49ers?

San Francisco 49ers fans may feel like their team name is less racist than the “Chiefs,” but given the history of the Gold Rush, they shouldn’t be so smug.
by Simon Moya-Smith via The Nation on February 9, 2024
Ambrotype of African American Woman with Flag—believed to be a washerwoman for Union troops quartered outside Richmond, Virginia

Home Front: Black Women Unionists in the Confederacy

The resistance and unionism of enslaved and freed Black women in the midst of the Confederacy is an epic story of sacrifice for nation and citizenship.
by Thavolia Glymph, Matthew Wills via JSTOR Daily on February 4, 2024
Palestinian Arab women and children in Israel, 1949

American Jews Have Fought for Palestinian Rights Since Israel Was Born

My research shows that this tradition runs deep.
by Geoffrey Levin via Slate on January 28, 2024
At center: organized labor leader John L. Lewis surrounded by crowds of male workers of all races.

Fragile Juggernaut

Introducing a project on US labor history, exploring what we can learn from 1930s-1950s industrial struggles.
by Andrew Yamakawa Elrod via n+1 on January 24, 2024
flickr.com/photos/dalelanham
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Playing to the Cameras

The prominence of politicos-turned-pundits is a product of cable news' turn to opinion commentary as a cheap and easy way to meet the needs of 24/7 coverage.
by Kathryn Cramer Brownell via HNN on December 12, 2023
President Harry S. Truman signing a bill authorizing the Fulbright Program, with Sen. J. William Fulbright (left) and Assistant Secretary of State William Benton.

The Fulbright Program Is Quietly Burying Its History

Fulbright created an exchange program which sends Americans abroad and advances international engagement and mutual understanding. Yet it’s not his only legacy.
by Karin Fischer via The Chronicle of Higher Education on December 8, 2023
Black residents of Natchez, Miss., walk alongside a railroad track in August 1940.

One of the Biggest U.S. Slave Markets Finally Reckons With Its Past

Natchez, Miss., is beginning to highlight the history of its enslaved people—including at a Black-owned bed and breakfast in former slave quarters.
by Sarah Enelow-Snyder via Retropolis on November 26, 2023
A crowd of tourist superimposed over images of Salem attractions and a cemetery.

Salem’s Unholy Bargain: How Tragedy Became an Attraction

Is the cost worth the payoff?
by Lex Pryor via The Ringer on October 30, 2023
Elizabeth Rose Poole's death record.

Invisible Women, Invisible Abortions, Invisible Histories

One La Jolla family’s story illuminates a persistent gap in our collective memory.
by Alicia Gutierrez-Romine via Zócalo Public Square on October 9, 2023
From left: A red and white sign protesting Critical Race Theory, groups of people stand in a parking lot

(White) Christian Roots of Slavery, Native American Genocide, and Ongoing Efforts to Erase History

15th century dogma connects the genocide and land dispossession of Native Americans with the enslavement and oppression of African Americans throughout history.
by Robert P. Jones, Bradley Onish via Religion Dispatches on October 2, 2023
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