Woods along the path of the British retreat from Concord to Boston.

Why Concord?

The geological origins of the American Revolution.
A horse hitched to a dairy wagon in Madison, WI.

The Rise and Demise of Equine “Cyborg” Labor

Archives from Madison, Wisconsin show the role of mechanized horses, or equine "cyborg" labor, in the growth of U.S. cities.
Fugitives from slavery disembarking from a boat to waiting coaches.

The Underground Railroad’s Stealth Sailors

The web of Atlantic trading routes and solidarity among maritime workers meant a fugitive's chances of reaching freedom below deck were better than over land.

Guantánamo’s Secret History

Trump isn’t the first U.S. president to use the military base to incarcerate migrants.
Commercial and tourist docks of St. George's, Grenada.
partner

Grenada: When the Cold War Got Spicy

The 1983 invasion of Grenada raised questions about the legitimacy of American reactions to a communist presence on the island.
A man walking through a hallway of cheese wheels.

A Scholar’s Stunning Claim About Parmesan Cheese Made Me Question Everything.

My investigation spanned continents, centuries, and the bounds of good taste.
Meyer and his dog (courtesy of Eugene Meyer); National Review’s anniversary dinner, 1960 (Courtesy of National Review)

When Young Conservatives Went to Woodstock

It wasn’t the music that drew them, but an intellectual celebrity: Frank Meyer.
Pennsylvania Hall in flames as a crowd watches and firefighters work.

The Burning of Pennsylvania Hall

Abolitionists built a monument to liberty and free speech steps from Indepdence Hall in Philadelphia. Then a mob burned it to the ground.
An apartment building on fire.

Did Racial Capitalism Set the Bronx on Fire?

To some, the fires lit in New York in the late seventies signaled rampant crime; to others, rebellion. But maybe they were signs of something else entirely.
Rudy Giuliani prepares for a press conference surrounded by confiscated guns.

A New York Miracle

A street-level view of Rudy Giuliani’s transformation of the Big Apple.
Black soldiers and well-dressed women walking proudly in a military camp.

Chocolate City

Right after slavery ended in the United States, thousands of Black people, formerly enslaved by white slave holders in the South, flooded Washington, DC.
Protesters gather outside the White House, holding picket signs advocating for home rule for Washington DC.

How the 1973 D.C. Home Rule Act Enabled the Nation’s Capital to Govern Itself—With Oversight

Far from being a new debate, the discussion over extending home rule to Washingtonians has been around as long as the District of Columbia itself.
Stanley Greenberg photographing New York City water infrastructure.

A Photographer Brings New York City’s Water System to the Surface

Stanley Greenberg has spent decades answering the question of how water arrives in our taps and building interest in this vast and impressive system.
A policeman stoops down next to a roulette wheel and writes on a clipboard.

The Engines and Empires of New York City Gambling

As plans are laid for a new casino, one can trace, through four figures, a history of rivalry and excess, rife with collisions of character and crime.
A man walks in the sun near palm trees and their small shadows.

How America Became Hostile to Shade

A roving history makes the case for shade’s centrality to public health, climate adaptation, and even a more robust and inclusive public sphere.
A visitor reads a sign called “Saving Muir Woods” in Muir Woods National Monument

Muir Woods Exhibit Becomes First Casualty of White House Directive to Erase History

Muir Woods National Monument added contextual notes to signs, filling in historical gaps. The Trump administration removed them.

The Strange and Wonderful Subcultures of 1960s New York

From slum clearance to beatnik protests, how Greenwich Village became a battleground over race, art, and redevelopment.
Mary Virginia Montgomery

The Montgomerys of Mississippi: How a Once Enslaved Family Bought Jefferson Davis’ Plantation House

In 1872, former slave Mary Virginia Montgomery, now a cotton plantation owner, records her life’s changes after moving from slavery to self-sufficiency.
Mount Rushmore

On Myths and Monuments

Mount Rushmore and storytelling at America’s national parks.
Totwar Land Office building.

No Place of Grace

Coming to terms with free-state slavery through historic buildings and public history.
Engraving of the burning of Portland, Maine, in 1776

The Biggest Coverup of the American Revolution

The Declaration of Independence condemns King George III. But the British were not to blame for one of the war’s most infamous conflagrations.
Silhouette of a man with smokestack smoke entering his brain.

Did Lead Poisoning Create a Generation of Serial Killers?

Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, and many other notorious figures lived in and around Tacoma in the sixties. A new book argues that there was something in the water.

Remembering One of America’s First Modern School Shootings, 50 Years Later

A teacher tells the story of 1974’s Olean, New York High School murders.
Frank Hallam, "En Masse Sunners Seen from Pier 45, 4/25/1982" (1982/2012) (collection of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, Gift of the artist)

When NYC’s Piers Were a Sanctuary for Gay Gathering 

In the 1960s, amid the shipping industry's decline, the empty piers became a site for cruising and creativity for gay men in particular.
Conservative protesters hold signs and flags at a Tea Party protest.

Lone Star Futures

Texas might have been a place to start a conversation about widening the scope of civil liberties, but it has also been a place where those liberties end.

The Heritage of Dylann Roof

Ten years after the Charleston massacre, reverence for the Confederacy that Roof idolized is going strong.
Industrial plant releasing thick smoke into the sky.

Poisoned City: How Tacoma Became a Hotbed of Crime and Kidnapping in the 1920s

On the intersection of environmental contamination and violence in the Pacific Northwest.
Visitors pose atop Arch Rock, a geological formation on Mackinac Island.

How America’s Second National Park Lost Its Federal Status—and Gained a New Life as a State Park

Much of Mackinac Island was designated as a national park, but was too expensive for the government to maintain, so it was transferred to the State of Michigan.
A monument to fallen Civil War soldiers with the New York City skyline in the background.

Green-Wood Cemetery’s Living Dead

How the “forever business” is changing at New York City’s biggest graveyard.
A large gathering of people and parked cars in the undeveloped Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles, California.

Engineering Nature, Igniting Risk

LA’s fires and a century of landscape manipulation.