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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
Patti Davis sits for a portrait with her pug, Lily, at her home.

For Years, the Reagans' Daughter Regretted Some Things She Wrote. Now She's at Peace.

Patti Davis has spent a lifetime chronicling her life with parents Ronald and Nancy Reagan. In a new book, 'Dear Mom and Dad,' she reckons with them as people.
by Mary McNamara via Los Angeles Times on February 6, 2024
Washed-out photo of a man, and redacted book cover of "Born Free and Equal."

Seeing Japanese American Heritage Through Ansel Adams’s Lens

A photographer excavates personal history through reconstruction of Adams's World War II photographs of Japanese Americans.
by Joseph Maida via The Nation on November 29, 2023
Collage of plantation logbooks superimposed over photos of enslaved people.

A Racist Scientist Commissioned Photos of Enslaved People. One Descendant Wants to Reclaim Them.

There's no clear system in place to repatriate remains of captive Africans or objects associated with them.
by Jennifer Berry Hawes via ProPublica on October 9, 2023
Book cover of "Before the Movement" by Dylan C. Penningroth

What the Conventional Narrative Gets Wrong About the Civil Rights Movement

A new book illuminates how Black Americans used property ownership, common law and other methods to assert their rights.
by Matt Delmont via Washington Post on September 26, 2023
Shemp Howard and Tiny Brauer in "Fling in the Ring"

The House Next Door to the Stooges

A visit to the old neighborhood.
by Robin Hemley via Turning Life into Fiction on May 17, 2023
A photo of three young girls smiling seated around a table with dolls next to them.

Reading Disability History Back into American Girl

The author's personal history with the dolls, and an argument for American Girl to make a new doll with a disability.
by Marissa Spear via Nursing Clio on November 1, 2022
A high school yearbook photo of Elizabeth Prewitt.

I Never Saw the System

As a white teenager in Charlotte, Elizabeth Prewitt saw mandatory school busing as a personal annoyance. Going to an integrated high school changed that.
by Elizabeth Prewitt via Admissions Projects on October 1, 2022
The author, as a young girl, standing in front of a wall.

As If I Wasn’t There: Writing from a Child’s Memory

The author confronts the daunting task of writing about her childhood memory, both as a memoirist and a historian.
by Martha Hodes via American Historical Review on September 19, 2022
Black and white photo of Ishmael Reed as a child in Willert Park Courts, 1943.

The Buffalo I Knew

The city is at a crossroads. Which path will it take?
by Ishmael Reed via New York Review of Books on July 9, 2022
Actor John Turturro and his grandmother.

My Grandmother’s Botched Abortion Transformed Three Generations

Her death was listed as ‘manic depressive psychosis,’ and it sent five of her six children to orphanages.
by John Turturro via Washington Post on July 8, 2022
A 1907 photograph of immigrants arriving at Ellis Island.

What I Don’t Know

At the heart of my family tree are only questions and mysteries.
by Lynne Sharon Schwartz via The American Scholar on April 14, 2022
"We are the Spirit Rappers," 2016, By Amy Friend.

The Weight of Family History

It’s never been easier to piece together a family tree. But what if it brings uncomfortable facts to light?
by Colin Dickey via The New Republic on March 21, 2022
A large federal style brick house, the William Paca House in Annapolis, Md.

I Searched for Answers About My Enslaved Ancestor. I Found Questions About America

'Did slavery make home always somewhere else?'
by Imani Perry via TIME on January 13, 2022
Dual circular images of fire, representing seeing fire through the eye holes of a klan hood

Sins of the Fathers

In Life of a Klansman, Edward Ball’s white supremacist great-great-grandfather becomes a case study in the enduring legacy of slavery.
by Colin Grant via New York Review of Books on October 28, 2021
Rembrandt van Rijn self-portrait

Autobiography with Scholarly Trimmings

Even as they tell others’ stories, historians often write about their own lives.
by Zachary M. Schrag via Perspectives on History on July 13, 2021
Collage of a photograph of a boy over a photo of Castro and his entourage.

My Brother’s Keeper

Early in the Cuban Revolution, my mother made a consequential decision.
by Ada Ferrer via The New Yorker on February 18, 2021
Depiction of a woman in a tree, looking down with a thoughtful expression.

Roots to Fruits

Meditations on when you think you found the people who owned your people via DNA test.
by Mariah-Rose Marie M via The Nib on February 1, 2021
The author at a Feminary Collective meeting with co-members Eleanor Holland (left) and Helen Langa (center) in Durham. Photo by Elena Freedom.

The Queer South: Where The Past is Not Past, and The Future is Now

Minnie Bruce Pratt shares her own story as a lesbian within the South, and the activism that occurred and the activism still ongoing.
by Minnie Bruce Pratt via Scalawag on January 27, 2020

The Magic of Estate Sales

These collections of everyday objects are clues to strangers’ daily lives.
by Ann Friedman via Curbed on May 1, 2019

Being Morally Serious About the Supreme Court

What sorts of youthful transgressions are forgivable, and which are disqualifying, for which jobs?
by Nils Gilman via The American Interest on October 3, 2018
Young boy holding the Communist sickle and hammer, in black and white

Revisions in Red

A scholar wrestles with the legacy of her grandfather, onetime leader of America’s Communist Party.
by Laura Browder via The Chronicle of Higher Education on November 19, 2012
Split rectangle: one side blue, one side red.

How Today’s America Came About

Two different accounts from Prospect’s co-founders on how Postwar prosperity gave way to rising inequality, political polarization, and cultural conflict.
by Paul Starr via The American Prospect on September 10, 2025
Frank Meyer testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1959.

Frank Meyer’s Path from Devoted Communist to Promoter of Conservative ‘Fusionism’

A detailed, exhausting, and ultimately too-gentle treatment of the midcentury writer and editor, Frank Meyer.
by Joshua Tait via The Bulwark on August 26, 2025
Billy Wilder walking down a street, holding a cigarette.

Billy Wilder’s Battle With the Past

How the fabled Hollywood director confronted survivor’s guilt, the legacies of the Holocaust, and the paradoxes of Zionism.
by Ben Schwartz via The Nation on August 18, 2025
Silhouettes of a family, three wearing shirts showing matching DNA shirts, and one with different DNA.

The Family Fallout of DNA Surprises

Through genetic testing, millions of Americans have discovered family secrets. The news has upended relationships and created a community looking for answers.
by Jennifer Wilson via The New Yorker on August 18, 2025
Demonstrators march, carrying signs against firing City College faculty.

Eric Foner’s Personal History

Reflecting on his decades-long career, the historian considers what his field of study owes to the public.
by Eric Foner via The Nation on August 14, 2025
Joseph Pilates and Romana Kryzanowska illustration of them doing pilates.

Bodies by Joe

With his strange machines and an uncanny, intuitive understanding of muscles, Joseph Pilates created a new technique for improving strength and movement.
by Alma Guillermoprieto via New York Review of Books on July 31, 2025
A Farm Security Administration representative visits Seabrook Farms in New Jersey in May 1938.

Destiny of the Dispossessed Spinach Prince

John Seabrook’s history of Seabrook Farms, where many incarcerated Japanese Americans worked during WWII, is ultimately about fathers and sons.
by Nick Ripatrazone via The Bulwark on July 25, 2025
A drawing of a microscopic slide of Bacterium lactis.

Dying Before Germ Theory

The harrowing experience of being powerless against illness and death.
by Melanie A. Kiechle via Nursing Clio on July 21, 2025
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