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Young men in custody after the Zoot Suit Riots.
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The Dangerous Game Donald Trump Is Playing With MS-13

Exaggerating the danger of the group only creates new problems.
by Roberto José Andrade Franco via Made By History on March 7, 2018

The Unlikely Pulp Fiction Illustrations of Edward Hopper

When the iconic painter drew cowboys for the pulp-fiction magazine, 'Adventure.'
by Daniel Crown via Literary Hub on March 5, 2018
Mississippi Klan members wearing hoods.

The Media and the Ku Klux Klan: A Debate That Began in the 1920s

The author of "Ku Klux Kulture" breaks down the ‘mutually beneficial’ relationship between the Klan and the media.
by Felix Harcourt, Lois Beckett, Jesse Brenneman via The Guardian on March 5, 2018

Voices in Time: Horror Movie Scene-Setting

The author of 'High-Risers' revisits 'Candyman,' in which public housing is the greatest horror of all.
by Ben Austen via Lapham’s Quarterly on March 1, 2018

A Century Ago, Progressives Were the Ones Shouting 'Fake News'

The term "fake news" dates back to the end of the 19th century.
by Matthew F. Jordan via The Conversation on February 1, 2018
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The People's Grocery Lynching, Memphis, Tennessee

Thomas Moss’ lynching, like many others in the South, was a punishment for becoming an economic competitor to whites.
by Damon Mitchell via JSTOR Daily on January 24, 2018

The Stowaway Craze

The "celebrity stowaways" of the Jazz Age reached levels of virality similar to today's social media stars.
by Laurie Gwen Shapiro via The New Yorker on January 8, 2018
Lizzie Borden.
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Why We’re So Obsessed With Lizzie Borden’s 40 Whacks

Lizzie Borden’s father and stepmother were brutally murdered, possibly by Lizzie herself, in August 1892. Why are we still dissecting the crime?
by Erin Blakemore, Ann Schofield via JSTOR Daily on August 4, 2017
Barry Goldwater with his finger to his lips sushing the audience.

Why the 'Goldwater Rule' Keeps Psychiatrists From Diagnosing at a Distance

Here's what to know about the man behind the longstanding rule.
by Olivia B. Waxman via TIME on July 27, 2017

What the "Crack Baby" Panic Reveals About The Opioid Epidemic

Journalism in two different eras of drug waves illustrates how strongly race factors into empathy and policy.
by Vann R. Newkirk II via The Atlantic on July 16, 2017
Syringe and pills.
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How Sensationalism Compounds the Opioid Crisis

Instead of playing on emotions, we need to destigmatize addiction.
by Claire D. Clark via Made By History on July 5, 2017
Great White shark

Blood in The Water: Four Dead, A Coast Terrified and The Birth of Modern Shark Mania

A series of deadly shark attacks by the Matawan Man-Eater shook New Jersey and prompted President Wilson to declare war on sharks.
by Steve Hendrix via Retropolis on May 31, 2017
People on a rollercoaster

Are We Having Too Much Fun?

In 1985, Neil Postman observed an America imprisoned by its own need for amusement. He was, it turns out, extremely prescient.
by Megan Garber via The Atlantic on April 27, 2017
Men running with their newspapers, one of which says "fake news"

Yellow Journalism: The "Fake News" of the 19th Century

Peddling lies goes back to antiquity, but during the Tabloid Wars of the 19th-century it reached the widespread outcry and fever pitch of scandal familiar today.
by Adam Green via The Public Domain Review on February 21, 2017
Valium pills
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Mother's Little Helper

How feminists transformed Valium from a wonder drug to a symbol of medical sexism.
via BackStory on May 20, 2016
Cannabis sativa plant.
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Reefer Madness in Mexico City

Historian Isaac Campos traces the origins of the idea that marijuana causes violent madness…and finds the trail leads south, to Mexico.
via BackStory on May 20, 2016

Blurred Forms: An Unsteady History of Drunkenness

We have always questioned the spiritual and physical effects of alcohol.
by Kristen D. Burton via The Appendix on December 3, 2014
Raised scars on the back of a formerly enslaved man.

“A Typical Negro”

Gordon, Peter, Vincent Colyer, and the story behind slavery's most famous photograph.
by David Silkenat via American Nineteenth Century History on August 8, 2014

The Myth of the War of the Worlds Panic

Orson Welles’ infamous 1938 radio program did not touch off nationwide hysteria. Why does the legend persist?
by Michael J. Socolow, Jefferson Pooley via Slate on October 28, 2013
The media fueled fears of a parrot-fever pandemic; then the story went into reverse. Illustration by Laurent Cilluffo.

The Spread

Jill Lepore on disease outbreaks of pandemic proportions, media scares, and the parrot-fever panic of 1930.
by Jill Lepore via The New Yorker on May 25, 2009
A teacher points to an ovary on a diagram of reproductive organs projected in a classroom.

“Filmitis”

When movie fandom became a medical condition.
by Diana W. Anselmo via Nursing Clio on November 19, 2025
Lobby card for Freaks (1932)
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Tod Browning’s 'Freaks'

'Freaks' asked audiences to think about the exploitative display of human difference while also demonstrating that the sideshow was a locus of community.
by Betsy Golden Kellem via JSTOR Daily on October 29, 2025
US soldiers posing with the bodies of Moro people after the massacre of Bud Dajo, Jolo Island, Philippines, March 7, 1906.

Massacre Under the Starry Flag

The history of a single photograph reveals how an atrocity in the Philippines was forgotten by its American perpetrators.
by Vicente L. Rafael via New York Review of Books on October 2, 2025
Demonstrators express support for Robert Mapplethorpe's art in Cincinnati, April 1990.

Return of the Repressors

On the culture wars of the late 1980s and ’90s.
by Andres Serrano, Ron Athey, Karen Finley, Helen Molesworth, Tina Rivers Ryan via Art Forum on October 1, 2025
Toddler getting a vaccine
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Vaccine Skepticism Is Reviving Preventable Diseases

We’re still dealing with the repercussions of a discredited 1998 study that sowed fear and skepticism about vaccines.
via Retro Report on August 28, 2025
Mushroom cloud of a nuclear bomb going off.

Inside the History of Nuclear Science

Eighty years after the bomb, scientists still grapple with nuclear legacy. Some seek atonement, others insist it’s no longer their burden.
by Erik Baker via New Statesman on August 6, 2025
Black man's face, and maps of Chicago, in an outline of a detective.

The Talented Mr. Bruseaux

He made his name in Chicago investigating race riots, solving crimes, and exposing corruption. But America’s first Black private eye was hiding his own secrets.
by Matthew Wolfe via The Atavist on July 23, 2025
Phineas Gage.

How the ‘Myth of Phineas Gage’ Affects Brain Injury Survivors

Why does the diagnosis of Gage social ‘disinhibition’ lean so heavily on flimsy documentation about Gage, while overlooking the case of Eadweard Muybridge?
by Ben Platts-Mills via Aeon on June 23, 2025
Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper reimagined as Atlanta Cop City dripping blood.

From the Atlanta Race Massacre to Cop City: The AJC Incites Harm

The AJC wielded its editorial power to pave the path for Cop City and the 1906 race massacre, directly harming Black Atlantans.
by Aja Arnold via Scalawag on June 11, 2025
Mother's hand holding baby's hand on the cover of "Blue: A History of Postpartum Depression in America".

On Rachel Louise Moran’s "Blue: A History of Postpartum Depression in America"

A new book challenges the discursive ignorance about the condition.
by Audrey Wu Clark via Society for U.S. Intellectual History on May 25, 2025
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