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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.
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.
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.

"Though Declared to be American Citizens"

The Colored Convention Movement, black citizenship, and the Fourteenth Amendment.
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.

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.

How Do We Explain This National Tragedy? This Trump?

On 400 years of tribalism, genocide, expulsion, and imprisonment.
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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.

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.

Growing Up in the Shadow of the Confederacy

Memorials to the Lost Cause have always meant something sinister for the descendants of enslaved people.

The Military, Minorities, and Social Engineering

Trump’s transgender ban restarts the debate about the relation between military service and social policy.

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.
Sarrasani Program 1931 with Lakota's on horses, elephants, (circus theme).

Performing the Exotic and Lakota Resistance

How Lakota performers challenged the 'exotic othering' of their identities in the Sarrasani circus.
Migrant walking down a road.

Los Angeles’ 1936 ‘Bum Blockade’ Targeted American Migrants Fleeing Hardship During the Depression

The two-month patrol stopped “suspicious” individuals from crossing into California. But its execution was uneven, and the initiative proved controversial.
Native Americans perform a burial ceremony under a rock overhang.

Religion in the Lands That Became America

Historian Thomas A. Tweed proposes an environmental approach to the study of American religion.
John Travolta on the dance floor in the film Saturday Night Fever, 1977.
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Disco and Classical Music: A Copacetic Couple

Despite seeming like strange dance partners, disco and classical make the best music—together.
Images of historical figures including Bejamin Franklin and Albert Einstein are overlaid on a green and white background.

Who’ll Be in Trump’s Hero Garden? There Are a Few Surprises.

The list of nearly 250 includes the famous, the obscure and, in some cases, the intentionally controversial.
Romani American Birthday Party, c. 1960, courtesy of Portland Art Museum

The Case of the Missing Romani American History

And why we should find it.
Japanese-American man in a military uniform.

He Spent His Life Trying to Prove That He Was a Loyal U.S. Citizen. It Wasn’t Enough.

How Joseph Kurihara lost his faith in America.
JD Vance

J.D. Vance's Anti-Declaration

Truths self-evident no more.
Five men sharing a meal in Qing dynasty China.

Splitting Hairs

Chinese immigrants, the queue, and the boundaries of political citizenship.
An 1880 Harper's Weekly illustration titled Women at the Polls in New Jersey.

Women in New Jersey Gained—and Lost—the Right to Vote More Than a Century Before the 19th Amendment

Vague phrasing enfranchised women who met specific property requirements. A 1790 law explicitly allowed female suffrage, but this privilege was revoked in 1807.
Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, and Kristi Noem, look at rows of bunk beds behind chain link fence in a detention center.

Don’t Call it ‘Alligator Alcatraz.’ Call it a Concentration Camp.

This facility’s purpose fits the classic model, and its existence points to serious dangers ahead for the country.

Gimme Boer

The recent resettlement of a few dozen Afrikaner “refugees” points to a longer history of U.S. fascination with these Dutch-descended white South Africans.
Scaffolding behind the statue of the rule of law outside the Supreme Court building.

Trump Is Wrong About Birthright Citizenship. History Proves It.

Lawmakers knew the Fourteenth Amendment would apply to the children of immigrants.
Supreme Court viewed through a window; Supreme Court justices' hands on their laps.

The Archaic Sex-Discrimination Case the Supreme Court Is Reviving

In Skrmetti, the Court turned to a decades-old decision once thought to be consigned to history.
Lithograph depicting General Washington leading his troops in battle against British troops.

Why George Washington Integrated the Army

The commander-in-chief initially barred black soldiers from joining the ranks, but he came to understand the value—both moral and strategic—of a diverse force.
An illustration of blurry Korean people in the ruins of a city after a nuclear bombing.

The Atomic Bombs’ Forgotten Korean Victims

Survivors of the nuclear blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still fighting for recognition.

The Revolutionary Idea That Remade the New World

Birthright citizenship is distinctly American—but not in the way Trump thinks.
Illustration equating Israel's “Who is a Jew?” policy with the Nazi selection process.

Jew? Not a Jew?

The untold story of how American Jewry and the Jewish state almost resolved the question of who is a Jew.
William F. Buckley reclines behind a desk, glasses in hand, a bulletin board of National Review magazine material behind him.

The Conservative Intellectual Who Laid the Groundwork for Trump

The political vision that William F. Buckley helped forge was—and remains today—focused less on adhering to principles and more on ferreting out enemies.

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