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Black-and-white glamour photo of Josephine Baker, smiling in her stage attire.

Josephine Baker Was the Star France Wanted—and the Spy It Needed

When the night-club sensation became a Resistance agent, the Nazis never realized what she was hiding in the spotlight.
by Lauren Michele Jackson via The New Yorker on August 8, 2022
"Mademoiselle V...in the Costume of an Espada," by Edouard Manet, a painting of a woman dressed as a matador holding sword and cloth.

A Private Matter

Abortion and "The Scarlet Letter."
by Dana Medoro via Lapham’s Quarterly on August 3, 2022
Man training under water with scuba gear.

Remembering the World War II Frogmen Who Trained in Secret off the California Coast

Recruits learned the arts of infiltration, sabotage, and survival at a hidden base on Santa Catalina Island.
by Andrew Dubbins via Atlas Obscura on June 30, 2022
Cartoon of the Supreme Court with its columns tangled.

The Problem of the Supreme Court

It’s time to admit that the nation’s highest court has been a source of harm more often than it’s been a force for justice.
by Louis Michael Seidman via The Nation on June 20, 2022
Free Julian Assange free speech protesters
partner

The Espionage Act Has Become Dangerous Because We Forgot Its Intention

The Julian Assange case exposes how changing concepts unintentionally broadened a law.
by Daniel Larsen via Made By History on June 18, 2022
illustration of Civil War soldier carrying sack of gold

A Lost Trove of Civil War Gold, an FBI Excavation, and Some Very Angry Treasure Hunters

“I’m going to find out what the hell the FBI did and I’m going to expose it to the world.”
by Chris Heath via The Atlantic on June 17, 2022
Collage of photos of musicians.

How a Saxophonist Tricked the KGB by Encrypting Secrets in Music

Using a custom encryption scheme based on musical notation, US musicians smuggled information into and out of the USSR.
by Lily Hay Newman via Wired on June 8, 2022
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.
by Audrey Clare Farley via The New Republic on May 30, 2022
Memorial to cancer patients of the Radiation Effects Study, 1960-1972

Radiation, Race, and Recognition

Accountability is crucial as we remember the individuals and communities harmed by our institutions and call for retroactive justice.
by Divya Kumar via Nursing Clio on May 26, 2022
The U.S. Capitol building at night.

A Capital History

Washington has long been a disproportionately gay city—a mecca for clever, ambitious young men who want to escape their hometowns’ prying eyes.
by Bruce Bawer via Commentary on April 12, 2022
Silhouette of a woman's head against a blue and green back drop, with writing within the outline.

The Myth of Agent 355, the Woman Spy Who Supposedly Helped Win the Revolutionary War

A single reference in the historical record has spawned an array of adaptations, most of which overstate the anonymous figure's role in the Culper Spy Ring.
by Bill Bleyer via Smithsonian on March 21, 2022
Lithograph of men and women drinking and dancing at an American Dance House.

The Influences of the Underworld: Nineteenth-Century Brothel Guides, Cards, and City Directories

Brothel guides tended to be small, making them easy to conceal. They also mimicked other publications to make it easier to hide the guides’ true purpose.
by Brittney Ingersoll via Commonplace on March 1, 2022
Chemical lab buildings around American University campus.

The Dangerous Ghosts of WWI Research in Spring Valley

World War I saw the advent of chemical weaponry, and a mysterious chapter in the history of American University in Northwest DC.
by Fontana Micucci via Boundary Stones on February 25, 2022
Radioactive plume from atomic bomb over Nagasaki

Hiding the Radiation of the Atomic Bombs

The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the U.S. came with censorship and obfuscation about the effects of the radiation on those who were exposed.
by Matthew Wills, Janet Farrell Brodie via JSTOR Daily on February 24, 2022
Vintage drawing of a Victorian-era drugstore

Was Edgar Allan Poe a Habitual Opium User?

While Poe was likely using opium, the efforts to keep him quiet suggest that he was also drinking.
by Elizabeth Kelly Gray via Commonplace on February 7, 2022
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump tosses a paper with polling statistics during a town hall event on Oct. 6, 2016, in Sandown, N.H.

‘He Never Stopped Ripping Things Up’: Inside Trump’s Relentless Document Destruction Habits

Trump’s shredding of paper in the White House was far more widespread and indiscriminate than previously known.
by Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey, Tom Hamburger, Jacqueline Alemany via Washington Post on February 5, 2022
The Abraham Lincoln Brigade, led by Milton Wolff.

Soldiers of Solidarity

Giles Tremlett tells the story of the foreigners who joined the first line of defense against fascism in Europe.
by Dan Kaufman via New York Review of Books on February 3, 2022
Richard Nixon giving a press briefing.
partner

Presidents v. Press: How the Pentagon Papers Leak Set Up First Amendment Showdowns

Efforts to clamp down on White House leaks to the press follow a pattern that was set during the Nixon era after the publication of the Pentagon Papers.
via Retro Report on February 2, 2022
African American students and teacher in a classroom, Henderson, KY, 1916.

The Origin Story of Black Education

As Frederick Douglass’s master put it, a slave who learned to read and write against the will of his master was tantamount to “running away with himself.”
by Jarvis R. Givens via Harvard University Press Blog on February 1, 2022
Black and white photo of U.S. soldiers outside Manila during the Philippine-American War.

The Resounding Darkness of America’s Black Sites

It is in the hidden spaces of American empire that the realities of power can truly be seen.
by Jonathan M. Katz via The Baffler on January 10, 2022
The physicist Klaus Fuchs standing in a group of people.

Why Scientists Become Spies

Access to information only goes so far to explain the curious link between secrets and those who tell them.
by Rivka Galchen via The New Yorker on January 5, 2022
The picture is a photo collage of three men against the background of an atomic bomb explosion. Pictured from left to right is Ed Hall, Ted Hall, and former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.

One Brother Gave the Soviets the A-Bomb. The Other Got a Medal.

J. Edgar Hoover had both of them in his sights. Yet neither one was ever arrested. The untold story of how the Hall brothers beat the FBI.
by Dave Lindorff via The Nation on January 4, 2022
Cover of Moyne's book, with the subtitle "How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War," in front of a desert landscape.

Not Humane, Just Invisible

A counter-narrative to Samuel Moyn’s "Humane": drone warfare and the long history of liberal empire blurring the line between policing and endless war.
by Priya Satia via Los Angeles Review of Books on December 3, 2021
An old water tower stands near abandoned outhouses on the former site of a Firestone plantation in Liberia.

Corporations Are Hiding Vast Troves of History From the Public

You can work around some of the holes this lack of access creates, but it takes years.
by Gregg Mitman via Slate on November 2, 2021
Woman holding a poster that says "ABORTION". AP Images

The Roe Baby

After decades of keeping her identity a secret, Jane Roe’s child has chosen to talk about her life.
by Joshua Prager via The Atlantic on September 9, 2021

9/11 Forever

Far from a relic of the past, September 11 continues to normalize previously unimaginable forms of state-sanctioned barbarity.
by Joseph Margulies via Boston Review on September 7, 2021
Plane with an eye in it and a bird's silhouette around.

Did Making the Rules of War Better Make the World Worse?

Why efforts to curb the cruelty of military force may have backfired.
by Dexter Filkins via The New Yorker on September 2, 2021
Miniature portrait of Benjamin Tallmadge.

George Washington's Culper Spy Ring: Separating Fact from Fiction

Bill Bleyer dives into the secret Culper Spy Ring during the American Revolution while disproving many of the urban myths surrounding the characters involved.
by Bill Bleyer via Journal of the American Revolution on June 3, 2021
Redacted declassified Top Secret memorandum written by Oliver North on Jack Terrel, terrorist suspect.

Iran-Contra and Domestic Counter-Intelligence Networks

Oliver North and his cronies in the Contra support operations put in motion a clandestine counter-intelligence apparatus to disrupt the flow of information.
by Edmund Berger via Reciprocal Contradiction on May 19, 2021
Stephen Kinzer

The Untold Story of the CIA’s MK Ultra: A Conversation with Stephen Kinzer

Stephen Kinzer discusses his new biography, “Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control.”
by Stephen Kinzer, James Penner, Ed Prideaux via Los Angeles Review of Books on May 19, 2021
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