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A drawing of 10 identical women in historical cooking, but nine of them are colored green and one of them is red.

Anthony Bourdain on the Life and Legacy of a Truly Infamous Cook: Typhoid Mary

“Mary Mallon was a cook. And her story, first and foremost, is the story of a cook.”
A motel that burned down in the Pacific Northwest wildfires, with a melted sign seen through orange smoke.
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Scapegoating Antifa for Starting Wildfires Distracts from the Real Causes

Radicals have long been blamed for wildfires in the Pacific Northwest.

Trump Revives a Shameful Tradition: Targeting a Minority Group with Crime Reports

The president's executive orders and inflammatory rhetoric follow a predictable path.
Karl Marx gazing off into the distance while surrounded by books

Karl Marx’s Legacy in the United States

For two centuries, Karl Marx’s thoughts have significantly impacted US politics. In turn, his close study of the US informed the development of his ideas.
Exhibit

Blame Games

This exhibit meditates on the theme of blame, exploring who has been deemed responsible for what throughout the course of American history.

Anwan “Big G” Glover, musical director of the Go-Go Museum and Cafe, performs at The Kennedy Center on Feb. 14.

Saving the Signature Sound of Washington, DC

A new museum dedicated to Go-Go music comes with a message for both gentrifiers and lawmakers: #Don’tMuteDC.
Photo of Kamala Harris speaking at a moderated conversation with Liz Cheney.
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Why People Should Stop Comparing the U.S. to Weimar Germany

Those who draw a line from today to that infamous historical moment when democracy slid into authoritarianism are missing a key difference.
Mexican immigrants huddled in a cage during Operation Wetback.

Trump's Deportation Model

A 1950s mass deportation campaign shows that abuse and dehumanization are intrinsic to immigrant detention.
Leatherface swinging a chainsaw branded with the American flag.

It Might Be the Scariest Movie Ever Made. There’s Never Been a Better Time to Watch It.

The vibes right now are very "Texas Chain Saw Massacre."
Illustration of John Tanton

The Ghosts of John Tanton

Today’s contentious immigration debate is the construct of one man’s effort to halt overpopulation.
Donald Trump stands in front of a microphone, holding a graph titled "Illegal Immigration into the US."

Trump’s Anti-Haitian Hate Has Deep American Roots

The former president’s grotesque demagoguery is just the latest in a long line of vicious attacks on residents and immigrants from the island nation.
Aerial view of suburbs.
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To Understand What Could Happen on Election Day, Understand the Suburbs

Even as they've diversified, suburban politics have remained protectionist — often defying ideological categorization.
Lieutenant William Calley walking alongside his civilian attorney, with two other men following behind.

Was William Calley MAGA’s Founding Father?

He committed mass murder at My Lai. He was also its fall guy.
Poster for the WPA theatrical production of "It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis

Stealing the Show

Why conservatives killed America’s federally funded theater.
Parental advisory sticker warning of explicit content.
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Who Gets to Regulate #*%&? Free Speech in Popular Culture

When speech offends, who decides where boundaries should be drawn?
A group of Transappalachain migrant workers in Department 312 of the Anderson Delco-Remy plant pose for a photograph in February 1953.

On the New Book, "Hillbilly Highway"

Recovering the long-overlooked significance of the “hillbilly highway” in the US, with implications for labor history as well as US history broadly.
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.
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.
Ron DeSantis

DeSantis, Trump and The History of Treating D.C. Residents Like They Aren’t Americans

A history as intertwined with race as with partisanship.
Police and bystanders at night.

Do Cartels Exist?

A revisionist view of the drug wars.
CIA director William Colby, left, and President Gerald Ford, right.

How the Murder of a CIA Officer Was Used to Silence the Agency’s Greatest Critic

A new account sheds light on the Ford administration’s war against Sen. Frank Church and his landmark effort to rein in a lawless intelligence community.
An Arkansas girl in migrant camp near Greenfield, Salinas Valley, Calif., 1939. (Dorothea Lange / Heritages Images via Getty Images)

How Reading “The Economist” Helped Me to Stop Worrying About White Supremacy

A recent viral sensation identifies the migration of poor whites as the cause of the problem—letting the rest of us off the hook!
A portrait of Joe Hill.

Joe Hill Was Killed for Singing Labor’s Song

The labor troubadour Joe Hill was executed by a Utah firing squad for a crime he almost certainly didn’t commit.
Then-Sen. John F. Kennedy (left) met with Democratic Party rival Adlai Stevenson on the porch of Kennedy’s house in 1960.

How JFK Sacrificed Adlai Stevenson and the Lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis

The standoff 60 years ago has newfound relevance for handling the Ukraine crisis today.
Painting of a stylized explosion and the silhouettes of African American soldiers.

A Deadly World War II Explosion Sparked Black Soldiers to Fight for Equal Treatment

After the deadliest home-front disaster of the war, African Americans throughout the military took action to transform the nation's armed forces.
Profile outlines of four people standing in line.

Every New Disease Triggers a Search for Someone to Blame

Focusing on a virus’s origins encourages individualized shame while ignoring the broader societal factors that contribute to a disease’s transmission.
Photo of Vincent Chin superimposed on "Stop Anti-Asian Attacks" Protests.

Remembering Vincent Chin — And The Deep Roots of Anti-Asian Violence

40 years after Vincent Chin’s murder, the struggle against anti-Asian hate continues.
Sign for the Community of Faith church in Houston, lit up at night near dark railroad tracks.

The Racist Roots of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Sex Scandal “Apocalypse”

The Southern Baptist Convention is tearing itself apart over its leaders’ long-running cover-up of abusers in its ranks. But there’s a deeper reckoning below.
Four duplicate portrait photos of Judah P. Benjamin.

Biographical Fallacy

The life of Judah Benjamin, a Southern Jew who served in the Confederate government, can tell us only so much about the American Jewish encounter with slavery.
Men wearing tuxedos carry a coffin and a "Here Lies Jim Crow" sign down a street as a demonstration against "Jim Crow" segregation laws in 1944.

No Quick Fixes: Working Class Politics From Jim Crow to the Present

Political scientist Adolph Reed Jr. discusses his new memoir.
Image of a 1970's band invoking the imagery of the Lost Cause and the Confederacy.

Whistlin' D ----.

Why songs of the southland are really northern.

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