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Henry Kissinger in his office, standing behind a desk and reading a folder

The People Who Didn’t Matter to Henry Kissinger

Lauded for his strategic insights, the former secretary of state is better remembered for his callousness toward the victims of global conflict.

by Gary J. Bass via The Atlantic on November 29, 2023

Gen. James Longstreet.

The Conquered General

The back-and-forth life of Confederate James Longstreet.

by Richard Kreitner via Slate on November 20, 2023

Charlie Chaplin in a still from “The Great Dictator.”

The War on Charlie Chaplin

He was one of the world’s most celebrated and beloved stars. Then his adopted country turned against him.

by Louis Menand via The New Yorker on November 13, 2023

A collage in which a photograph of Blanche Ames Ames is superimposed on a photograph of John F. Kennedy.

How John F. Kennedy Fell for the Lost Cause

And the grandmother who wouldn’t let him get away with it.

by Jordan Virtue via The Atlantic on November 13, 2023

The Men Who Started the War

John Brown and the Secret Six—the abolitionists who funded the raid on Harpers Ferry—confronted a question as old as America: When is violence justified?

by Drew Gilpin Faust via The Atlantic on November 13, 2023

Jimmy Carter Stood up for Palestinians. Why Won’t Today’s Democrats?

At the height of George W. Bush’s War on Terror, Jimmy Carter had the courage to call out Israel for its human rights abuses.

by Alex Skopic via Current Affairs on November 9, 2023

Collage of Louis Armstrong playing the trumpet, waving, and smoking, and a picture of his home in Queens.

Louis Armstrong Gets the Last Word on Louis Armstrong

For decades, Americans have argued over the icon’s legacy. But his archives show that he had his own plans.

by Ethan Iverson via The Nation on October 30, 2023

Destroyed buildings and streets in the aftermath of the Chicago fire.

What Really Started the Great Chicago Fire?

The famous disaster razed a metropolis and spread a pack of colorful lies. To sift through the ashes today is to encounter some uncomfortable truths.

by Margaret Talbot via The New Yorker on October 2, 2023

Edgar Allan Poe’s America

Tracing the life of the author who seemed to be from both everywhere and nowhere.

by Ed Ayers on October 2, 2023

Chuck Berry performing with a guitar.

The Transgressor

RJ Smith’s biography of Chuck Berry examines his subject’s instinct for crossing the line musically, racially, and morally.

by RJ Smith via New York Review of Books on September 28, 2023

Martin Luther King Jr.

Defanged

A journalistic view of Martin Luther King Jr.'s life, work, and representation in American society.

by Eric Foner via London Review of Books on September 28, 2023

Sly Stone performing at a concert.

The Undoing of a Great American Band

Sly and the Family Stone suggested new possibilities in music and life—until it all fell apart.

by James Parker via The Atlantic on September 16, 2023

Women at National Organization for Women demonstration

Betty Friedan and the Movement That Outgrew Her

Friedan was indispensable to second-wave feminism. And yet she was difficult to like.

by Moira Donegan via The New Yorker on September 11, 2023

Betty Friedan

The Abandonment of Betty Friedan

What does the academy have against the mother of second-wave feminism?

by Rachel Shteir via The Chronicle of Higher Education on September 11, 2023

Members of Moms for Liberty stand outside a school, one holding a sign reading "I don't co-parent with the government."

Moms for Liberty Is Riding High. It Should Beware What Comes Next.

Yelling about schools gets people riled up. The outcome can be unpredictable.

by Adam Laats via Slate on August 29, 2023

Barbie doll

Barbie and the Problem of Corporate Power

Stars of the movie about an iconic Mattel toy are on strike. Both the company’s history and Barbie’s plot illuminate how powerful corporations really are.

by Rithika Ramamurthy via Nonprofit Quarterly on July 31, 2023

Charles Dickens as he appears when reading, Harper’s Weekly (December 7th, 1867).

A Christmas Carol In Nineteenth-Century America, 1844-1870

What were Americans' immediate responses to "A Christmas Carol," and how did Dickens' reading tours and eventual death reshape its meaning?

by Thomas Ruys Smith via Comparative American Studies on July 27, 2023

Photo of Joseph Weizenbaum against a collage of antiwar protests and code.

‘A Certain Danger Lurks There’: How the Inventor of the First Chatbot Turned Against AI

Computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum was there at the dawn of artificial intelligence– but he was also adamant that we must never confuse computers with humans.

by Ben Tarnoff via The Guardian on July 25, 2023

Edgar Allan Poe

Poe vs. Himself: On the Writer’s One-Sided War with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The story of the Little Longfellow War.

by Anne Whitehouse via Literary Hub on July 24, 2023

Hubert Humphrey addresses the Democratic National Convention in July 1948.

The Speech That Turned Democrats on Civil Rights and Lost Them the South

The president didn’t want to go too far on civil rights in 1948, fearing it would cost him reelection. But an obscure mayor changed the race — and his party.

by Richard Harris via Retropolis on July 14, 2023

Cards reading "visa" and "permanent resident".

Impossible Systems: On Carly Goodman’s “Dreamland”

The visa lottery reveals the inherent myths and contradictions at play in the US immigration system.

by Tim Hirschel-Burns via Los Angeles Review of Books on July 13, 2023

Basketball players resting on court

Game Changer

On the mismatched sporting advice of Clair Bee and John R. Tunis.

by Dan McQuade via Lapham’s Quarterly on July 10, 2023

J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Oppenheimer, Nullified and Vindicated

The inventor of the atomic bomb, the subject of Christopher Nolan’s new film, was the chief celebrity victim of the national trauma known as McCarthyism.

by Kai Bird via The New Yorker on July 7, 2023

Franz Kafka

How Franz Kafka Achieved Cult Status in Cold War America

And the origins of the term “Kafkaesque.”

by Brian K. Goodman via Literary Hub on July 5, 2023

Ronald Reagan with James Watt

Good Riddance to the Architect of the GOP’s Environmental Culture Wars

James Watt was a fiery evangelical, a cultural laughingstock—and instrumental in shaping modern GOP rhetoric on the environment.

by Liza Featherstone via The New Republic on June 16, 2023

Photo-Illustraton of Adolph Ochs.

The Invention of Objectivity

The view from nowhere came from somewhere.

by Darrell Hartman via The Atlantic on June 3, 2023

Jonathan Big next to cover of "King: A Life."

Restoring the Real, Radical Martin Luther King Jr. in “King: A Life”

A new biography of King emerges at a "critical juncture" for his legacy.

by Jonathan Eig, Steve Nathans-Kelly via Chicago Review of Books on May 23, 2023

Cartoon of Henry Kissinger blowing out birthday candles on a cake depicting his criminal legacy.

Henry Kissinger, War Criminal—Still at Large at 100

We now know a great deal about the crimes he committed while in office. But we know little about his four decades with Kissinger Associates.

by Greg Grandin via The Nation on May 15, 2023

A portrait of Jackie Robinson in his Brooklyn Dodgers uniform, circa 1945.

Jackie Robinson Was More Than a Baseball Player

Jackie Robinson is popularly portrayed as the man who broke baseball’s color line by quietly enduring racist abuse. But that narrative is much too narrow.

by Michael Arria, David Naze via Jacobin on May 12, 2023

A microphone animated as a black snake.

The Dark Side of Defamation Law

A revered Supreme Court ruling protected the robust debate vital to democracy—but made it harder to constrain misinformation. Can we do better?

by Jeannie Suk Gersen via The New Yorker on May 11, 2023

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