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Whole Wheat Shell Pasta on Grey, by artist Rachel Doom, 2019.

Wielding Wheat

A new history makes a case for the world-ordering power of wheat.
Images of European Immigrants arriving to America on Ellis Island.

The Myth of the Rapid Mobility of European Immigrants

Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan on the data illusion of the rags-to-riches stories.
FDR with eyes crossed out with red line

Is It Time to Cancel FDR?

Today’s progressives are children of the old Republican Party, not the New Deal Democrats. Roosevelt and his followers stood for nearly everything they oppose.
Women and men sifting for gold

Yes, Women Participated in the Gold Rush

“Conventional wisdom tells us that the gold rush was a male undertaking,” writes the historian Glenda Riley. But women were there, too.

The Commercial Rise of Country Music During the Great Depression

The Depression was the gravitational pull that created country stars and their nationwide universe of listeners.

The Migrant Caravan: Made in USA

Much of the migrant "crisis" is blowback from decades of official U.S. policy in Central America.

Washington Trained Guatemala’s Mass Murderers—and the Border Patrol Played a Role

Now two Guatemalan children have died under Border Patrol custody. But the agency’s role in Latin American oppression has a long history.

The Electoral Politics of "Migrant Caravans"

To alleviate voters' fears during the Civil War, Northern governors refused to open their states to formerly enslaved refugees.

Who Killed Jakelin Caal Maquín at the US Border?

She died of cardiac arrest, but the real killer was decades of US policy in Central America.
Harper's Weekly illustration titled "The Negro Exodus -- the Old Style and the New," depicting a fugitive slave and exodusters traveling west.

Exodusters: African American Migration to the Great Plains

A primary source set and teaching guide created by educators.

Rosie the Riveters Discovered a Wartime California Dream

Following wartime opportunities west, seven million “Rosie the Riveters” found more than just jobs when they reached California.

The Flood Blues

How floods have united people of color from the Gulf Coast states for nearly a century.

Origins and Destinations of the World’s Migrants, from 1990-2015

Explore origin and destination totals of migrants from 233 countries between 1990 and 2015.

When People Flee to America’s Shores

We are a nation of immigrants and refugees. Yet we always fear who is coming next.
Political cartoon depicting children recoiling from Catholic bishops crawling onto the beach with their robes and hats making them look like crocodiles.

When America Hated Catholics

In the late 19th century, statesmen feared that Catholics were something less than civilized (and less than white).

Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Nine maps of the transatlantic slave trade between 1500 and 1900.
A dairy farm near Charlottesville (Library of Congress).

'Charlottesville': A Government-Commissioned Story About Nuclear War

A fictional 1979 account of how the small Virginia city would weather an all-out nuclear exchange between the U.S. and U.S.S.R.
Border Patrol agents stand watch along a barrier.

Mass Deportations Are an American Tradition

Past presidents showed that removing millions of illegal aliens is achievable.
A U.S. Border Patrol vehicle in front of a section of the U.S.-Mexico border fence near Ocotillo, Calif., on Sept. 13.
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The Myth of ‘Open Borders’

Even before the United States regulated migration, states did. Here’s why.
Jacob Schiff.

Jewish Leaders a Century Ago Had Complicated Feelings About Israel

Fierce disagreements over Zionism have played out from the movement’s inception among Jews, including community leaders who worried it would spark antisemitism.

Comic Gold

The Gold Rush introduced a new figure into the American imagination – the effete Eastern urbanite who travels to the Wild West in quest of his fortune.

When California Went to War Over Eggs

As the Gold Rush brought more settlers to San Francisco, battles erupted over the egg yolks of a remote seabird colony.

Today's U.S.-Mexico "Border Crisis' in 6 Charts

Immigration from Mexico is actually decreasing.

The People Who Would Survive Nuclear War

How an appendix to an obscure government report helped launch a blockbuster and push back the possibility of atomic war.
Harry Silberstein driving a Paper-Calmenson scrap metal pick-up wagon, ca. 1900. (Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest)
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Scrapping in the Streets

A discussion of the booming 19th-century trade in scrap metal.
Bright apocalyptic explosion over a city.

Is 2016 the Worst Year in History?

Is 2016 worse than 1348? And 1836? And 1919?

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