Ed Ayers

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?

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.

The legacy of Operation Pedro Pan, a plan to save Cuban children from communist indoctrination by leaving their families and resettling in the United States.

A brief discussion of the fierce 19th century debates over beards, and how booming American cities created the perfect climate for all that facial hair to grow.

A discussion of the patriotic attempt to spurn European fashion and spin cloth at home in the time leading up to the Revolutionary War.

Nasology was a 19th century pseudoscience which claimed to explain personality traits based on the shape of a person’s nose.

On the 1870s skirmish between John D. Rockefeller and the upstart competitors who built the country’s first long-distance oil pipeline.

How the mythologizing of the Union Army’s Irish Brigade helped dispel anti-Irish sentiment.

Women in the workplace, from 19th century domestic workers to the Rosies of World War II to the labs of Silicon Valley.

Syracuse University Geography professor Matt Huber discusses the 1930s oil boom in the American southwest, and the military might brought in to control it.

Using oral histories of early East Texas oil workers, recorded in the 1950s, we hear about the chaos and excess that accompanied the discovery of oil.

The story of the oil shocks of 1973 and how they continue to shape the world we live in today.

Tracing the evolution of Christmas from a drunken carnival to the peaceful, family-oriented, consumeristic ritual we celebrate today.

An author's search for the "real" Christopher Columbus.

Columbus Day is here again -- along with the controversy over its namesake. How have earlier generations understood him?