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Idea

inclusion/exclusion

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A scene from the film Orphans of the Storm depicting a group carrying a sign bearing the slogan “Liberté, Egalité et Fraternité,” 1921.

The History of Equality: It’s Complicated

The strange and contradicting development of the liberal version of egalitarianism.
by Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, Darrin M. McMahon via The Nation on November 16, 2023
Actress Bobby Bradshaw is tempted by a pearl necklace, 1925.
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Pearl Jam

In the twentieth century, the mollusk-produced gem was a must have for members of WASP gentility. In the twenty-first century, its appeal is far more inclusive.
by Hillary Waterman via JSTOR Daily on June 8, 2022
Collage of women's rights symbolism. Woman outline waving flag.

Who Lost the Sex Wars?

Fissures in the feminist movement should not be buried as signs of failure but worked through as opportunities for insight.
by Amia Srinivasan via The New Yorker on September 3, 2021

"Though Declared to be American Citizens"

The Colored Convention Movement, black citizenship, and the Fourteenth Amendment.
by Andrew K. Diemer via Muster on July 11, 2018

Citizens: 150 Years of the 14th Amendment

In 1868, black activists had already been promoting birthright as the basis of their national belonging for nearly half a century.
by Martha S. Jones via Public Books on July 9, 2018

How Do We Explain This National Tragedy? This Trump?

On 400 Years of Tribalism, Genocide, Expulsion, and Imprisonment.
by T. J. Stiles via Literary Hub on January 31, 2018
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Trump’s View of America as a White Nation Is as American as Apple Pie

But it’s seriously dated. And there's another tradition he could draw on.
by Benjamin E. Park via HNN on January 15, 2018

The Nationalist's Delusion

Trumpism emerged from a haze of delusion, denial, pride, and cruelty—not as a historical anomaly, but as a profoundly American phenomenon.
by Adam Serwer via The Atlantic on November 20, 2017

Growing Up in the Shadow of the Confederacy

Memorials to the Lost Cause have always meant something sinister for the descendants of enslaved people.
by Vann R. Newkirk II via The Atlantic on August 22, 2017

The Military, Minorities, and Social Engineering

Trump’s transgender ban restarts the debate about the relation between military service and social policy.
by Richard S. Slotkin via The Conversation on August 7, 2017

The Captive Aliens Who Remain Our Shame

A review of Robert Parkinson’s book “The Common Cause: Creating Race and Nation in the American Revolution”.
by Annette Gordon-Reed via New York Review of Books on January 19, 2017

Who Tells America's Story? 'Hamilton,' Hip-Hop, and Me

How the hit musical allows those who have been left out of the story to claim the narrative of America as their own.
by Marcella White Campbell via Baker Street Blues on March 15, 2016
NATO leaders in the 1950s sitting together at a conference.

Ill-Suited to Reality: NATO’s Delusions

It has suddenly become popular to cast NATO as the first benign military alliance in history, without concealed politics.
by Tom Stevenson via London Review of Books on August 1, 2024
Runners on a track and crowds in the stands at the All Africa Games, 1973.
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Afraid of an Inspiring Olympics Story

How Europe reacted when Ethiopia tried to join the famed global sporting tradition at the 1924 Paris Olympics.
by Hannah Borenstein via HNN on July 16, 2024
Wilbert E. Longfellow being saved from the water by a female lifeguard.
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Women Have the Daring to Be Real Life Savers

How a tragedy in New York City convinced Americans to learn how to swim.
by Vicki Valosik via HNN on July 16, 2024
A man tacks applications to Princeton University on a bulletin board
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The Rise of the College Application Essay

The essay component of American college applications has a long history, but its purpose has changed over time.
by Sarah Stoller via Made by History on July 11, 2024
President Calvin Coolidge raising his hand behind a podium to be sworn into office.
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Behind America’s First Comprehensive Federal Immigration Law

Even as the primary targets of immigration restrictionism have shifted, the consequences for immigrants remain profoundly shaped by the system created in 1924.
by Devin E. Naar via Made by History on July 9, 2024
Human figures colored either blue or green.

Mortality Wars

Estimating life and death in Iraq and Gaza.
by Shaan Sachdev via The Drift on July 8, 2024
A man in uniform holding an honorable discharge certificate from the U.S. Air Force.

How The U.S. Military Built San Francisco's LBGTQ+ Legacy

Many LGBTQ+ veterans settled in the city as it was a common point of disembarkation and a place of gender nonconformity.
by Solcyré Burga via Time on June 21, 2024
A photograph of saxophonist Dexter Gordon at Jazzhus Montmartre in Copenhagen in 1964.

Why the Nordic Countries Emerged as a Haven for 20th-Century African American Expatriates

An exhibition in Seattle spotlights the Black artists and performers who called Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden home between the 1930s and the 1980s.
by Tamara J. Walker via Smithsonian on June 20, 2024
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Exhibit

“All Persons Born or Naturalized in the United States...”

A collection of resources exploring the evolving meanings of American citizenship and how they have been applied -- or denied -- to different groups of Americans.

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