A movie still from Scarface (1932) depicting members of the mafia.

Mob Rules

The Chicago Outfit’s second life as nostalgia—and as presidential politics.
The unveiling of the statue of Barbara Rose Johns

Statue of Black Teen Replaces Robert E. Lee at U.S. Capitol

Barbara Rose Johns was only 16 when she led a walkout in 1951 to protest horrendous conditions at her segregated high school in rural Virginia.
Directors Sarah Botstein and Ken Burns look at a bust of George Washington

Ken Burns’s Wake-Up Call

Ken Burns’s newest docuseries may have its shortcomings, but others looking to tell the story of the Founding could learn from his attention to detail.
A rendering for the Chicago Torture Justice Memorial

Chicago Torture Justice Memorial To Be Built in Washington Park

After years of delays, construction is set to begin on the Chicago Torture Justice Memorial.
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The Historians Behind Ken Burns' "The American Revolution"

Three experts discuss their behind-the-scenes experience as historical advisers to the new series.
Declaration of Independence and American flag.

Declaration of Independence’s Promises Ring Out Today as Loudly as They Did for 249 Years

Americans have looked to the Declaration of Independence when they sought to remedy contemporary problems and create new visions for the country’s future.
Reclaiming Clio Book Cover.
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To Tell the Whole Story

The high-stakes struggle to make women’s history visible to all Americans.
American colonists pulling down a statue of King George the Third.

The Incoherence of Ken Burns’s ‘The American Revolution’

Ken Burns has set himself the impossible task of retelling a national origin story that all Americans will embrace as their own.
The military escort for the arrival of the Marquis de Lafayette forms at Castle Garden (1844) by F. J. Fritsch.

The Nation’s Guest

The Marquis de Lafayette’s final visit to the United States in 1825 can show us how to commemorate the Revolution.
American and French soldiers at the siege of Yorktown, by Jean-Baptiste-Antoine DeVerger, 1781.

Patriot Acts

What Ken Burns gets wrong about the war that made America.
Ken Burns

No, Ken Burns, the United States Is Not an Iroquois Nation

The Founders didn’t model us on the Six Nations, and George Washington didn’t tomahawk a Frenchman.
"Join, or Die" political cartoon of the snake in pieces representing colonies.

Did the Iroquois Really Influence the Birth of the Union?

For a fight at Thanksgiving, bring that one up.
Illustration by Anna Ruch, featuring founder Thomas Jefferson.

Tell Students the Truth About American History

We owe it to Americans of all ages to be honest about the country’s past, including its contradictions.
‘The First Thanksgiving, 1621,’ by Jean L. G. Ferris. Library of Congress

How the Plymouth Pilgrims Took Over Thanksgiving – and Who History Left Behind

In some ways, Thanksgiving is a tradition that unites Americans. But the classic image of the Pilgrims obscures important parts of the country’s story.
Ken Burns and Sarah Botstein

“A Story We Think We Know”: Ken Burns on The American Revolution

Burns and co-director Sarah Botstein discuss their six-part, 10-year labor of love, which finally makes it to PBS on November 16.
Battlefield illustration by Keith Negley

What Was the American Revolution For?

Amid plans to mark the nation’s semiquincentennial, many are asking whether or not the people really do rule, and whether the law is still king.
Salem MA Postcard of a witch riding a broom

Salem's Absent Witches

Historical and even pop culture references to the source of the town's fame are drowned out by a more generic Halloween ambience.
The Jefferson Memorial, with storm clouds outside, and light from within.

How Jefferson’s Words Were Doctored in his Memorial

A great-great-grandson pushed to portray Jefferson as an abolitionist, leaving a misleading impression about his actions on equality and slavery.
“Furling the Flag” by Richard Norris Brooke (1872)

Alternative Fictions: The New Lost Cause in the Post-Civil Rights Era

Revisiting the Lost Cause through post–Civil Rights Movement alternative histories.
The Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at the University of Virginia.

A Free Black Woman, a Memorial to Enslaved Laborers, and the Battle Over U.S. History

How Charlottesville’s memorial landscape can help us understand — and combat — the White House’s violent plans to reshape the nation’s public spaces.
The bronze statue of Confederate General Albert Pike.

Confederate Statue Torn Down During 2020 Protests Is Back Up In D.C.

The National Park Service announced its plan to return the refurbished statue of Confederate Gen. Albert Pike to a small federal park at Third and D streets NW.
Erie Canal, Lockport, New York, c.1855
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The Erie Canal at 200

Finished in October 1825, the Erie Canal connected increasingly specialized regions, altering the economic landscape of the northeast United States.
"Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution" book cover

What Hamilton—and the Book It’s Based On—Missed About Eliza and Angelica Schuyler

How Amanda Vaill gave Eliza and Angelica Schuyler their due.
Display of "our famous people" at a local museum.

Long Before the Field: Community, Memory, and the Making of Public History

What the institutionalization of "public history" means.
USS Maine

Why is America’s First Great War of Empire Barely Remembered at Home?

On the legacy of the United States' involvement in the Spanish-American War and the Philippine Revolution.
Theodore Roosevelt

The Progressive President and the AHA

Theodore Roosevelt and the historical discipline.
Fifteen year old Walter Gadsden being attacked by police dogs during the civil rights demonstration in Birmingham, Alabama
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Sanitizing the Civil Rights Movement

Contrary to the story being told in textbooks, media, and museums, the police were not neutral bystanders.
Christopher Columbus

On the Mysteries, Real and Imagined, Surrounding Christopher Columbus

Columbus lives on as a political and cultural symbol—hero, villain, myth—revealing how belief, not fact, shapes history.
Illustration by Matt Huynh.

What Is Colonial Williamsburg For?

Telling the full story of the town’s past is an easy way to make a lot of people mad.
Lincoln, Washington, and a snippet from a lyceum address.

The Lincoln Way

How he used America’s past to rescue its future.