Brian Balogh

How big business lies behind early efforts to encourage Americans to recycle.

A discussion of the booming 19th-century trade in scrap metal.

The story of an unofficial, integrated delegation from Mississippi that attempted to claim seats at the 1964 Democratic National Convention and was denied.

Before there was Vegas, there was Elkton, Maryland. Let's take a trip to this tiny town and tell the story of its former life as elopement capital of the US.

On the links between the rise of marriage counseling and the scientific embrace of eugenics.

How feminists transformed Valium from a wonder drug to a symbol of medical sexism.

Historian Isaac Campos traces the origins of the idea that marijuana causes violent madness…and finds the trail leads south, to Mexico.

How prior generations of Americans responded to the threat of infectious disease.

How disease devastated populations of escaped slaves in contraband camps behind Union lines during and after the Civil War.

How soldiers returning from World War I brought the Spanish flu back with them.

On John Winthrop’s oft-misunderstood use of the phrase “a city upon a hill” to describe the New World.

The 19th century recovery of John Winthrop's sermon, "A City on a Hill."

That time Stalin coined the term “American Exceptionalism.”

On a late nineteenth century debate: was America exceptional, or were Americans exceptional because they descended from England?

How nativism and racism shaped the national movement towards Prohibition.

A perusal of Benjamin Franklin’s "Drinker’s Dictionary," and a chat about how the drink of choice in revolutionary America switched from cider to rum.

American Indians and the tumult in their cultures precipitated by the arrival of alcohol.

What does it mean to be Muslim in America? And how has the practice of Islam in the U.S. changed over time?

On the occasion of Halloween, an exploration of previous generations' fascination with ghosts, spirits, and witches.

On the intersection of spiritualism with 19th century social reform movements.