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Henry James; illustration by James McMullan

Visions of Waste

"The American Scene" is Henry James’s indictment of what Americans had made of their land.
Portrait of Frederick Law Olmsted (detail), 1895, by John Singer Sargent (1856–1925); The Artchives/Alamy Stock Photo.

The Man Who Built Forward Better

Frederick Law Olmsted’s landscape creations, especially his urban parks, remain a vital part of our present.
Watercolor portrait of Bronson Alcott, a 19th century American philosopher and educator.

New England Ecstasies

The transcendentalists thought all human inspiration was divine, all nature a miracle.
Painting of a Puritan family sitting around a table with books.

Read More Puritan Poetry

Coming to love Puritan poetry is an odd aesthetic journey. It's the sort of thing you expect people partial to bowties and gin gimlets to get involved with.
Exhibit

Boston Commons

The innovations, and the prejudices, that have shaped the landscape and the community of the "hub of the universe."

Black and white drawing of early 19th century naval vessels.

The Insurers’ Wars

When Thomas Jefferson’s administration was debating whether to declare war against Britain, it came up against America’s wealthy and influential marine underwriters.
Women feeding horses next to Christmas tree decorated with apples and sign announcing "Free Christmas dinner for horses."

When Humane Societies Threw Christmas Parties for Horses

Held across the U.S. in the early 20th century, the events sought to raise awareness about workhorses' poor living conditions.
A locked public bathroom

Where Did All the Public Bathrooms Go?

For decades, U.S. cities have been closing or neglecting public restrooms, leaving millions with no place to go.

Before Interstates, America Got Around on Interurbans

The fate of electrified “rural trolleys” at the beginning of 20th century could offer lessons for today’s train boosters.
Old-time black and white pictures of Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir with a modern city background

How American Environmentalism Failed

Traditional environmentalism has lacked a meaningful, practical democratic vision, rendering it largely marginal to the day-to-day lives of most Americans.
An effigy of Richard Nixon with a distorted papier-mache head.

The People’s Bicentennial Commission and the Spirit of (19)76

The Left once tried to own the legacy of America’s Bicentennial, but ran into ideological and structural roadblocks all too familiar today.

Redlining, Race, and the Color of Money

Long after the end of explicit discrimination in the housing market, the federal government continued to manage risk for capital, perpetuating inequality.
Newspaper with "Join or Die" slogan

Join, Or Die: Why Did It Have To Be Snakes?

Revolutionary Americans adopted native snakes as symbols for their cause. Why?
Political cartoon of a man being taken away from his family.

The Role of Naval Impressment in the American Revolution

Maritime workers who were basically kidnapped into the British Royal Navy were a key force in the War of Independence.
Illustration of men around an old printing press

Benjamin Franklin's Fight Against a Deadly Virus

Colonial America was divided over smallpox inoculation, but he championed science to skeptic.
Newspaper headline stating "Mrs. Sarah Corleto to become nurse"

How an Embalming License Freed Sarah Corleto from an Abusive Husband

She used her work to live an autonomous life in a time when women were often trapped by socially constructed gender roles and systematic oppression.
Black men and women in Hilton Head, South Carolina, after the Civil War.

The United States' First Civil Rights Movement

A new history charts the radical agitation around Black rights and freedom back to the early nineteenth century. 
Illustration from Percival Lowell's Mars as the Abode of Life, 1908.

Alien Aqueducts: The Maps of Martian Canals

Observing the visible features of Martian landscapes, Giovanni Schiaparelli began seeing things almost immediately.
Anthony Brinson, right, talks to a resident in Detroit on May 4 as part of a door-to-door effort to encourage people in the majority-Black city to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. (Paul Sancya/AP)
partner

Black Americans Have Always Understood Science as a Tool in Their Freedom Struggle

Fixating on Black vaccine skepticism obscures a rich history of Black medical and scientific innovation.
A Union soldier sitting with his family

The Problem With Patriotism

I can’t ignore what this country has done to Black people. How do I find my place in it?
Black students from West Charlotte High School leave the school bus
partner

How White Americans’ Refusal to Accept Busing Has Kept Schools Segregated

The Supreme Court has refused to force White Americans to confront history.
Malcolm X

A Malcolm For Our Times

"The Dead are Arising" may be the best Malcolm X biography yet. But its author seems unsure of how to write about a religion outside the American mainstream.
Henry Adams and his wife, Clover Adams at Wenlock Abbey, England, 1873

A Posthumous Life

Family blessings are a curse, or they can be. The life of Henry Adams explained in his book Education.
A diverse group of school children saluting the American flag in a classroom.

Why the Asian-American Story Is Missing From U.S. Classrooms

Educators say that anti-Asian racism is directly linked to how the AAPI community is often depicted in U.S. history lessons .
engraving of a slave ship

Why Did the Slave Trade Survive So Long?

The history of the Atlantic slave trade after the American Revolution is a story of sustained efforts to suppress it even as demand for slaves increased.
Man walking though flood in Chicago

Redlined, Now Flooding

Maps of historic housing discrimination show how neighborhoods that suffered redlining in the 1930s face a far higher risk of flooding today.
New York in 1865, a slave ship, silhouette of Sanchez, and a page from Sanchez's notes.

How a Cuban Spy Sabotaged New York's Thriving, Illicit Slave Trade

Emilio Sanchez and the British government fought the lucrative business as American authorities looked the other way.
Headshot of Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass and the American Project

It would be hard to blame him if he had lost faith in the republic.
Illustration of a Lancasterian school building

A History of Technological Hype

When it comes to education technology, school leaders have often leaped before they looked.
Men and women workers marching in a 1914 May Day parade.

Time Is the Universal Measure of Freedom

In our own era of uncontrolled working hours, controlling our time is a vision of freedom worth capturing.
A large sports stadium surrounded by the city

Counterhistories of the Sport Stadium

As large spaces where different sectors of the city converge, stadiums are sites of social and political struggle.

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