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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.
A lithograph of Phillis Wheatley and the first page of her book, "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral."

Phillis Wheatley’s “Mrs. W—”: Identifying the Woman Who Inspired “Ode to Neptune”

Who was that traveler? And what did she signify to the poet?
Bars labeled First through Fourth depicting risk levels for housing loans.

The Shame of the Suburbs

How America gave up on housing equality.
The men of the Dawahares family, a Syrian immigrant family who founded a clothing business in Kentucky.

Moses of Cairo (Illinois)

The idea that non-white immigrants are, generally speaking, new to the Midwest could not be further from the truth.
Drawing of Phillis Wheatley writing at a desk.

The Great American Poet Who Was Named After a Slave Ship

A new biography of Phillis Wheatley places her in her era and shows the ways she used poetry to criticize the existence of slavery.
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!
Abraham Lincoln, sitting.

Lincoln and Democracy

Lincoln's understanding of the preconditions for genuine democracy, and of its necessity, were rooted in this rich soil. And with his help, ours could be, too.
18th-century map of Madagascar by Jacques-Nicolas Bellin.

The Hidden Treasures of Pirate Democracy

In his final book, David Graeber looks at an experiment in radical democracy and piratical justice in Madagascar.

Louis Congo: Ex-Slave and Executioner of Louisiana

Although freed from slavery, Louis Congo's job as public executioner ensured him a life as a pawn of French officials and retaliation from those he disciplined.
East Asian print of musicians entertaining elites.

A Means to an End

The intertwined history of education, history, and patriotism in the United States.
An illustration of Puritans in Springfield, Massachusetts.

The Witches of Springfield

Before Salem, this small town succumbed to the witch-hunting fever.
Black and white photo of Saidiya Hartman in a field of flowers

The Enduring Power of “Scenes of Subjection”

Saidiya Hartman’s unrelenting exploration of slavery and freedom in the United States first appeared in 1997 and has lost none of its relevance.
Black and white photo of Lydia Maria Child reading a book

Living in Words

A new biography explores the work of the influential abolitionist Lydia Maria Child, who wrote about the social, political, and cultural issues of her time.
Illustration of a Christian church cracking into two pieces.

A Religious Movement Divided Against Itself (Probably) Cannot Stand

Liberal Protestants built a global elite in the 20th century. Its fracturing holds a caution for evangelicals today.
Illustration with a 1950 Raleigh bicycle

Cycles of History: On Jody Rosen’s “Two Wheels Good”

A review of how author Jody Rosen depicts the history of the bicycle, mixing the personal with the factual.

Inventing Solitary

In 1790, Philadelphia opened the first American penitentiary, with the nation’s first solitary cells. Black people were disproportionately punished from the start.
Actress Bobby Bradshaw is tempted by a pearl necklace, 1925.

Pearl Jam

In the twentieth century, the mollusk-produced gem was a must have for members of WASP gentility. In the twenty-first century, its appeal is far more inclusive.
Gene Kemp and Mary ‘Teddie’ Kemp, at left, are seen with two friends, 1922.

Family Photos: A Vacation, a Wedding Anniversary and the Lynching of a Black Man in Texas

If Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had his way, the state’s past of lynching Blacks would be taught as an exception rather than the rule. History tells a different story.
Yellow oily paper with writing

Smell, History, and Heritage

Smell’s diffuse nature requires crossing the boundaries of several subfields within the historical discipline, but also moving beyond the boundaries of history alone.
Cover of "The Anti-Oligarchy Constitution" by Joseph Fishkin and William E. Forbath.

American Social Democracy and Its Imperial Roots

This post is part of a symposium on “The Anti-Oligarchy Constitution,” a new book by Joseph Fishkin and William E. Forbath.
Painting of George Washington in New York, 1783, surrounded by a crowd.

The Many American Revolutions

Woody Holton’s "Liberty is Sweet" charts not only the contest with Great Britain over “home rule” but also the internal struggle over who should rule at home. 
A lithograph of a Shaker congregation worshipping by performing a step dance.

The Sects That Rejected 19th-Century Sex

Why three religious groups traded monogamy for celibacy, polygamy, and complex marriage.
A close up picture of the beginning of the U.S. Constitution

The Constitution Was Meant to Guard Against Oligarchy

A new book aims to recover the Constitution’s pivotal role in shaping claims of justice and equality.
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.
Artist Isabel Holtan's depiction of an ant. The ant has fungi on its back.

"The Last Refuge of Scoundrels"

Hiding behind "academic freedom," E. O. Wilson actively propagated race pseudoscience in collusion with white supremacists.
Compilation of images: signs at the 1963 March on Washington, poster about censorship, confederate flag, KKK members in hoods, drawing of overseer wielding whip, classroom with portrait of Lincoln on the wall.

Behind the Critical Race Theory Crackdown

Racial blamelessness and the politics of forgetting.
A migrant from Haiti prays with a Bible on her head during a Mass at an improvised refugee shelter in Ciudad Acuña on Sept. 21.
partner

In Its Early Days, the United States Provided Haven to People Fleeing Haiti

Extending that compassion today could reverse past wrongs.
Painting of 18th century hunting party of men in long, tri-cornered hats, and curly wigs, riding horses.

The Comforts of a Single State

Thomas Jefferson imagines an unequal gender utopia.
The women of the Combahee River Collective.

“If Black Women Were Free”: An Oral History of the Combahee River Collective

“Here we are, a group of Black lesbian feminist anti-imperialist anti-capitalists trying to do the right thing.”
Black and white photo of Fatty Arbuckle

Fatty Arbuckle and the Birth of the Celebrity Scandal

A murder charge, a media frenzy, a banishment, and accusations of sexual abuse in Hollywood. What can the Arbuckle affair, now 100 years old, teach us today?

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