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“The Washington Family” painting by Edward Savage from the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Political Nepo Babies Root Back to America’s Founding

How family political dynasties in America came to be.
The Tri-City ValleyCats played in the Baseball Hall of Fame’s showcase game during induction weekend in 2004.

The Supreme Court May Overturn the Error That Made Major League Baseball Rich

A pair of minor league clubs are asking the court to reverse the league’s lucrative 101-year-old antitrust exemption.
Strikers outside Walt Disney Studios in 1941.

Disney Animators Strike During WWII Changed the Company — and Hollywood

The 1941 strike, following the spectacular success of “Snow White,” stunned Walt Disney and rattled his now-storied company.
Oil painting of two storm-tossed ships on a churning sea.

Startup Imperialism: Venture Capital and the Age of Exploration

A re-examination of the Age of Exploration may have more than a little to teach us about modern venture capitalists.
A woman touches a Vietnamese name on a memorial.

The Biggest Vietnam War Story that Americans Don’t Talk About

South Korea is finally being held to account for the carnage its mercenary troops inflicted on Vietnamese civilians. No one seems to be reckoning with our complicity.
Artwork featuring a backhoe at a residence, a burning hundred dollar bill, and a padlocked storefront.

The Kingdom of Private Equity

The 2007–2008 crisis was an epic clusterfuck. The rise of private equity has only made things worse.
A businessman superimposed over the Wall Street skyline.

How Not to Tell Stories About Corporate Capitalism

Turning the history of capitalism into a morality tale about good guys and bad guys is tempting.
Henry Ford

1922: Henry Ford on the Road to Riches

How Henry Ford managed the formation of the Ford Motor Company.
Nurse feeding baby milk in a bottle.

The Milk Banks of New York

Milk banks, a successor concept to wet nursing, are a little discussed part of the contemporary landscape of infant care.
The Ferguson Unit Rhythmeer Band plays at the Jim Ferguson Unit in Madison County, Texas.

The Blues Behind Bars: How Southern Prisons Shaped American Music

Incarcerated musicians have crafted some of the most iconic songs in American music history while prisons reap the profits.
Calculating machines.

Plantations, Computers, and Industrial Control

The proto-Taylorist methods of worker control Charles Babbage encoded into his calculating engines have origins in plantation management.
The Federal Reserve building under ominous black clouds.

The Federal Reserve Exists to Protect The Economic Status Quo

What is the Federal Reserve, and who put it in charge? Is there no other way to fight inflation? Just what the hell is going on here?

Anatomy of an ‘American Transit Disaster’

In his new book, historian Nicholas Dagen Bloom chronicles the collapse of public transportation in US cities — and explains who really deserves the blame.
CEO Eli Black (middle) talking with farmers at a lettuce farm.

The Banana King Who (Tried to) Put People Over Profits

1970s United Fruit CEO Eli Black got caught between the warring ideals of ‘social responsibility’ and shareholder gains.
Woman smiling mischeviously and holding bottles of liquor

Whiskey, Women, and Work

Prohibition—and its newly created underground economy—changed the way women lived, worked, and socialized.
A flower.

A Structural History of American Public Health Narratives

Rereading Priscilla Wald’s "Contagious" and Nancy Tomes’ "Gospel of Germs" amidst a 21st-century pandemic.
Two garment workers picketing in New York City during a 1910 strike.

We've Been Fighting Fast Fashion Since the Industrial Revolution

From the Triangle Factory Fire to Shein, fast fashion can’t escape ethical quandaries.
March Madness Stadium

A Harsh Reality Lies Beneath the Glory of March Madness

Despite captivating the nation with their athleticism every March, collegiate basktball players remain an exploited labor force for the profit of the NCAA.
Climate activists march to the U.S. Capitol after the “Farmers for Climate Action: Rally for Resilience” on March 7 in D.C. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images)
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Farmers Are Mobilizing for Action. It’s Not the First Time.

In the 1970s, a family farm movement famously mobilized in “tractorcades” at the Capitol to try to prevent farm foreclosures and keep farmers on the land.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
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The Big Business Campaign That Has Shaped 40 Years of GOP Rhetoric

The philosophy that drives the GOP's attacks on government and how it has fueled some of our biggest problems.
The WalMart Supercenter sign glowing over shopping carts in a deserted parking lot at night.

Charting the Murky Prehistory of the Retail Supercenter

Walmart did not invent or import the idea. In fact, it was among the last of the discount department stores to experiment with the concept.
Tourists taking photos at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
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Martin Luther King Jr. and the Coca Cola Strategy: Selling King’s Dream to the World

Martin Luther King’s words are available publicly — for a price.
Celery.

The Secret History of Celery

How the crunchy stalks went from Victorian centerpiece to ubiquitous football snack.
Jumbo, a famous elephant that belonged to showman P.T. Barnum, at the London Zoo.
partner

How Jumbo the Elephant Paved the Way For Jumbo Mortgages

The 11-foot-tall elephant reshaped our language, which has proved surprisingly apt.
Roi Ottley and other African American panelists on radio quiz program.

How African Americans Entered Mainstream Radio

For nearly 50 years, commercial radio companies only employed white broadcasters to target information and entertainment to mainstream America.
Turbulent drawing evoking mass strikes, urban decay, gas shortages, police in riot gear, chainsaw massacre, and disco.

We’re Haunted by the Economy of the 1970s

Politicians across the political spectrum warn of a return to the decade of stagflation, urban decay, and labor mutiny; but their solution misses the mark.
A faded beige map of New York from the 1700s, showing the city borders and street outlines.

The Manhattan Well Mystery: On America’s First Media Circus Around a Murder Case

The death of Elma Sands and the Manhattan Company.
William Barber III standing in front of Vera Brown Farm.

Rebuilding the Homestead

How Black landowners in eastern North Carolina are recovering generational wealth lost to industry encroachment.
Black and white photo of a crop duster releasing DDT spray over a forest.
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The History of DDT Shows Government Agencies Have Responsibility for Today's Skepticism about Science

Our government institutions, and especially our scientific ones, have a duty to rebuild the public trust that has eroded over the last half century.
Photograph shows two white men overseeing African American men hammering boulders as others walk with wheelbarrows.

Locked Up: The Prison Labor That Built Business Empires

Companies across the South profited off the forced labor of people in prison after the Civil War – a racist system known as convict leasing.

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