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Cars in the rubble of a burned out building in New York in the 1970s.

Fiscal Fright in NYC

A review of Kim Phillips-Fein’s "Fear City: New York’s Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics."
by Michael R. Glass via The Metropole on May 15, 2019

All Stick No Carrot: Racism, Property Tax Assessments, and Neoliberalism Post 1945 Chicago

Black homeowners have been an oft ignored actor in metropolitan history despite playing a central role.
via The Metropole on May 9, 2019

‘It’s a Racial Thing, Don’t Kid Yourself’: An Oral History of Chicago’s 1983 Mayoral Race

How Harold Washington became Chicago’s first black mayor.
by Jordan Heller via Intelligencer on April 2, 2019

The Public Costs of Private Growth

Amazon, the Great Depression, and the fiscal history #HQ2 supporters miss.
by Daniel Wortel-London via The Metropole on January 28, 2019
Frank Rizzo

Frank Rizzo and the Making of Modern American Politics

How Rizzo's blue-collar populism helped him survive his tumultuous first term as mayor.
by Timothy Lombardo via Tropics of Meta on October 16, 2018

What Do States Have Against Cities, Anyway?

Legislatures regularly interfere with local affairs. The reasons, according to research, will surprise you.
by Alan Ehrenhalt via Governing on November 1, 2017
Reagan signing the Anti-Drug Abuse Act.

The Untold Story of Mass Incarceration

Two new books, including ‘Locking Up Our Own,’ address major blind spots about the causes of America’s carceral failure.
by Vesla M. Weaver via Boston Review on October 24, 2017

The Deeper Problem Behind the Sale of a Posh San Francisco Street

The news that a posh San Francisco street was sold for delinquent taxes exposes the deeper issue with America’s local revenue system.
by Brent Cebul via CityLab on August 18, 2017
Kwame Ture at at a 1966 Mississippi Press Conference. Public Domain.
partner

Stokely Carmichael Interview

A field secretary of SNCC discusses the importance of maintaining political power inside communities at the county level.
via American Archive of Public Broadcasting on April 21, 1966
Model Cities staff in front of a Baltimore field office in 1971

Could a Bold Anti-Poverty Experiment from the 1960s Inspire a New Era in Housing Justice?

The Great Society’s Model Cities Program wasn’t perfect. But it offered a vision of what democratic, community-based planning could look like.
by Deyanira Nevárez Martínez via The Conversation on May 27, 2025
Promotional flyer for Zorita’s 1949 film, I Married a Savage, ca. 1949. In addition to her attire and the fact that she’s featured alongside her signature snake and her “Jungle Queens,” the film’s plot was anchored in deeply racialized, “exotic” tropes that were made more palatable to general audiences through the prism of her whiteness, femininity, and sexuality. Courtesy of the Tawny Petillo Collection.

Zorita in Miami

A queer Southern history.
by Julio Capó Jr. via Southern Cultures on April 8, 2025
A group of Mexican nationals boarding a bus for repatriation to Mexico from the United States.
partner

Scared Out of the Community

In the 1930s, approximately half a million Mexicans left the United States. Many families had American-born children to whom Mexico was a foreign land.
by Abraham Hoffman via HNN on March 25, 2025
A painting of a Staten Island harbor filled with boats, captioned "View of the Marine Hospital and Quarantine Grounds, Staten Island, New York."

Quarantine Scenes in Staten Island History

Staten Island's long battle against quarantine restrictions, from yellow fever to COVID-19.
by Carlos A. Santiago via The Gotham Center on March 19, 2025
The Ku Klux Klan parading near the Capitol Building in 1925, holding American flags.

What Felt Impossible Became Possible

George Dale's crusade against the Ku Klux Klan.
by Dan Sinker via Dan Sinker Blog on February 23, 2025
Two ionic columns winding around each other

How Progressives Broke the Government

Democrats’ cultural aversion to power has cleaved an opening for Trump.
by Marc J. Dunkelman via The Atlantic on February 16, 2025

Forget Lincoln or Reagan—Trump's Political Idol is a Mobbed-Up Brooklyn Boss

Donald Trump’s model of political leadership? The cigar-chomping, baseball-bat swinging Meade Esposito.
by John Ganz via Air Mail on February 8, 2025
Ben Davis Jr. leaving courthouse, surrounded by crowd carrying signs bearing various slogans.

In 1930s NYC, Proportional Representation Boosted the Left

NYC history suggests that the Left might profitably revive proportional representation as a tool to build its electoral strength.
by Trevor Goodwin via Jacobin on January 26, 2025
A collage of rats, trash, rat exterminators, and a rat mascot.

Rats!

Baltimore's long history with its most polarizing pest.
by Lydia Woolever via Baltimore Magazine on January 2, 2025
Portrait of Morris Hillquit.

When Socialists Run for NYC Mayor, Good Things Can Happen

Socialist legislator Zohran Mamdani is running for New York City mayor against a corrupt, unpopular mayor. Morris Hillquit did the same thing a century ago.
by Charlie Dulik via Jacobin on December 19, 2024
Pedestrians, carriages, and a trolley pass by the State street buildings in Westerville, Ohio.

The Ohio Town That Launched a Whiskey War

Westerville became the heart of the Prohibition movement, deploying everything from hymns to bombs to keep their town dry.
by Teresa Bitler via The Saturday Evening Post on December 5, 2024
Photo of Galveston County Jail, 1929.

How Texas Jails Built Migrant Incarceration

Following a 1925 investigation, immigrant detention in the Galveston County Jail was declared “a crime against humanity.”
by Brianna Nofil via Texas Observer on November 19, 2024
A crowd of Chinese immigrants stands around in a train depot.
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The China Business

At the turn of the century in upstate New York, one tiny town learned there was money to make in the jailing of Chinese migrants.
by Brianna Nofil via HNN on October 22, 2024
Black Legion members in wearing capes and hoods.

You Know About the KKK, but What About the Black Legion?

The Black Legion was a white supremacist fascist group headquartered in Lima, Ohio. Its worst deeds are lost to memory, but they shouldn’t be.
by Dana Frank via Jacobin on October 18, 2024

A Hundred-and-Nineteen-Year-Old Book That Explains Eric Adams

A collection of political sermons attributed to a crooked machine boss is a handy reference for New York City’s current political chaos.
by Eric Lach via The New Yorker on October 17, 2024
Cartoon of a person squished upside-down in a city high-rise.

The Death and Life of Progressive Urbanism

Blue America lacks a Gov. Ron DeSantis: someone remaking a state or major city in the image of a well-articulated ideology.
by Ross Barkan via Compact on October 2, 2024
Streetlamps and red trail lights glow in a dark city street.

A Nation of Cop Cities

The push to build large police training facilities follows on a long history of armories as both symbols and manifestations of state power.
by Matthew Guariglia via Inquest on September 26, 2024
Drawing of Stella Stimson at a polling place with a notebook.

When a Trailblazing Suffragist and a Crusading Prosecutor Teamed Up to Expose an Election Conspiracy

In 1916, an unlikely duo exposed political corruption in Indiana, setting a new precedent for fair voting across the country.
by Sasha Issenberg via Smithsonian on September 5, 2024
Forest of pine trees.

Tree of Peace, Spark of War

The white pines of New England may have done more than any leaf of tea to kick off the American Revolution.
by Ian Rose via JSTOR Daily on September 4, 2024
Eugene V. Debs delivers an antiwar speech in Canton, Ohio, June 16, 1918.

The Unsung History of Heartland Socialism

The spirit of socialism has coursed through the American Midwest ever since the movement emerged, continuing to animate the political landscape today.
by Miles Kampf-Lassin via In These Times on August 30, 2024

They Settled in Houston After Katrina — and Then Faced a Political Storm

The backlash against an effort to resettle 200,000 evacuees holds lessons for future disasters.
by Jake Bittle via Grist on August 27, 2024
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