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Illustration of McCormick at his desk, hunched over a typewriter.

Hellhounds on His Trail

Mack McCormick’s long, tortured quest to find the real Robert Johnson.
by Michael Hall via Texas Monthly on April 4, 2023
A roll of cotton thread in the shape of an eye.

Slavery and the Guardian: The Ties That Bind Us

There is an illusion at the centre of British history that conceals the role of slavery in building the nation. Here’s how I fell for it.
by David Olusoga via The Guardian on March 28, 2023
Sha-Rock tells her story to a crowd at the Bronx Music Heritage Center, 2023.

"You Gotta Fight and Fight and Fight for Your Legacy"

Sha-Rock claims her place as the first female MC in hip-hop history.
by Sidney Madden, Rodney Carmichael, Mano Sundaresan via NPR on March 23, 2023
Graphic including images of Percy Julian.

Percy Julian and the False Promise of Exceptionalism

Reflecting on the trailblazing chemist’s fight for dignity and the myths we tell about our scientific heroes.
by Alexis J. Pedrick via Distillations on March 16, 2023
The sillhouette of a Civil War statue on a night sky.

The Spirit of Appomattox

Why is Shelby Foote's Civil War subject to so much contemporary debate?
by Jonathan Clarke via The Hedgehog Review on March 1, 2023
Zoe Anderson Norris.

Meet Zoe Anderson Norris, the "Nellie Bly You've Never Heard Of"

Norris, who dubbed herself the "Queen of Bohemia," exposed the injustices of post-Gilded Age New York City—by going undercover.
by Ann Lewinson via Hell Gate on February 28, 2023
Bobby Seal and Huey Newton standig in front of a Black Panther Party sign

How Huey P. Newton’s Early Intellectual Life Led Him To Activism

The role of family in Huey P. Newton's educational journey.
by Mark Whitaker via Literary Hub on February 13, 2023
The statue Sons of St. Augustine depicting Alexander Darnes and Edmund Kirby Smith.

The Doctor and the Confederate

A historian’s journey into the relationship between Alexander Darnes and Edmund Kirby Smith starts with a surprising eulogy.
by Cynthia R. Greenlee via Smithsonian on January 10, 2023
Two rosin potatoes sitting on newspaper.

The Elusive Roots of Rosin Potatoes

A talk with family, turpentine workers, historians, chefs, foresters, and beer brewers to get to the root of the rosin potato's origins.
by Caroline Hatchett via The Bitter Southerner on November 22, 2022
Black-and-white grainy photograph of Eugene Debs speaking and gesturing with his hands
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In The Debs Archive

The papers of American labor activist and socialist Eugene V. Debs (1855–1926) offer a snapshot of early twentieth-century politics.
by Matthew Wills via JSTOR Daily on August 15, 2022
Edna St. Vincent Millay poses for a portrait among magnolia blossoms.

The Wondrous and Mundane Diaries of Edna St. Vincent Millay

Her private writing offers another, more idiosyncratic angle to understand the famed poet.
by Apoorva Tadepalli via The Nation on August 3, 2022
Sign that reads "Instructions to all persons of Japanese ancestry living in the following area"

Memory Work: Reading and Writing Japanese American Incarceration

What new possibilities might arise if we were to consider history as ongoing memory work, rather than a set narrative of progress or as singular “truth”?
by Erin Aoyama via Los Angeles Review of Books on June 9, 2022
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.
by Ran Abramitzky, Leah Platt Boustan via Literary Hub on June 1, 2022
A horse and jockey race by the crowd at the Kentucky Derby.

The Complicated Story Behind The Kentucky Derby’s Opening Song

Emily Bingham’s new book explores the roots of the Kentucky Derby’s anthem. It may not be pretty, but it’s important to know.
by Rebecca Gayle Howell via Washington Post on May 3, 2022
Oprah Winfrey speaking at a podium.
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Oprah’s Shows on the L.A. Riots Reveal What We’ve Lost Without Her Program

The power of daytime talk shows — especially “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”
by Leah Wright Rigueur, Kellie Carter Jackson via Made By History on May 2, 2022
John Bubbles dancing and Buck Washington playing keyboard, performing in Brooklyn, New York, 1930.

Never the Same Step Twice

Previous generations of dancers arranged their steps into tidy, regular phrases; John Bubbles enjambed over bar lines, multiplying, twisting, tilting, turning.
by Brian Seibert via New York Review of Books on April 21, 2022
Various photos of Dylan.

One Fan’s Search for Seeds of Greatness in Bob Dylan’s Hometown

The iconic songwriter has transcended time and place for 60 years. What should that mean for the rest of us?
by T. M. Shine via Washington Post Magazine on April 18, 2022
Brooklyn Dodgers infielder Jackie Robinson in uniform, circa 1945.

Jackie Robinson’s Last Fight

As baseball celebrates the 75th anniversary of Robinson’s breaking the color line, it’s worth remembering a man at odds with his own myth.
by Dave Zirin via The Nation on April 15, 2022
At the filling station and garage at Pie Town, New Mexico, in October 1940. Photo by Russell Lee, FSA/Library of Congress.

Cowboy Progressives

You likely think of the American West as deeply conservative and rural. Yet history shows this politics is very new indeed.
by Daniel J. Herman via Aeon on April 8, 2022
Illustration by Nilé Livingston of the many flags used throughout America as symbols of freedom, patriotism, and protest.

Scars and Stripes

Philadelphia gave America its flag, along with other enduring icons of nationhood. But for many, the red, white and blue banner embodies a legacy of injustice.
by Martha S. Jones via Philadelphia Inquirer on April 6, 2022
Vintage stereogram of Chinatown, San Francisco, ca. 1920s-30s.

How a California Archive Reconnected a New Mexico Family with its Chinese Roots

Aimee Towi Mae Tang’s Chinese American family never talked about the past. She decided to change that.
by Wufei Yu via High Country News on April 1, 2022
Phonograph records of Japanese music and a Japanese character dictionary.

Japanese on Dakota Land

Japanese Americans enter the frame of everyday Midwestern lives.
by Patti Kameya via Patti Kameya on February 14, 2022
A jar of soil from the burial site of Howard Cooper, dated 1885.

Now We Know Their Names

In Maryland, a memorial for two lynching victims reveals how America is grappling with its history of racial terror.
by Clint Smith via The Atlantic on February 2, 2022
A witch's hat and crooked stick, with the words "rags to witches"

Has Witch City Lost Its Way?

They’re hip, business-savvy, and know how to cast a spell: How a new generation of witches and warlocks selling $300 wands conquered Salem.
by Kathryn Miles via Boston Magazine on October 22, 2021
A black and white photo of historian Mae Ngai.

“We’ve Always Had Activists in Our Communities”

May Ngai uses her experiences as an activist in the 1980s and her research on the 19th century Chinese diaspora to debunk stereotypes about Chinese Americans.
by Mae Ngai, Jilene Chua via Public Books on October 13, 2021
A black and white photograph of a person playing the guitar.

My Father, Cultural Appropriator

The daughter of Buddy Holly's bandmate reflects on the defensiveness some white people have about the roots of rock 'n' roll.
by Sarah Curtis via Los Angeles Review of Books on June 5, 2021
Author Kim Clarke’s grandfather, Army Air Corps Corporal Delbert W. Trueman, grandmother Virginia, and mother Judy in 1944.

Gruesome but Honorable Work

Grieving family members were instrumental in the creation of a federal program to rebury and repatriate the remains of fallen soldiers after World War II.
by Kim Clarke via Perspectives on History on May 24, 2021

How the Modern NRA Was Born at the Border

A conversation between a historian and the creator of a new documentary short about NRA leader Harlon Carter.
by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Sierra Pettengill via Boston Review on May 7, 2021
A hand holding the hand of a baby doll.

The Strange Tradition of “Practice Babies” at 20th-Century Women’s Colleges

A photo archive shows college coeds vacuuming, preparing baby bottles, diapering babies, and generally practicing at motherhood.
by Megan Culhane Galbraith via Hyperallergic on May 2, 2021
Linda Kay Klein as a teenager
partner

Shamed Over Sex, a Generation Confronts the Past

Former followers of an evangelical “purity” movement that promoted a strict view of abstinence are grappling with aftershocks.
via Retro Report on April 6, 2021
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