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Memory

On our narratives about the past.
Jamie Raskin giving a speech at No Kings Day Protest.

Thomas Paine Helped Start America. In the Trump Era, He's Under Fire

The debate over Paine's legacy today is a proxy for a much larger debate over whose vision gets to govern.
by Jack Jenkins via Religion News Service on May 13, 2026

The Past is Alive to Those Who Wish to See It

History isn’t fixed or inevitable; it’s shaped by human choices. Flattening the past blinds us to present injustices and alternatives.
by Mindy Clegg via 3 Quarks Daily on May 8, 2026
Ken Burns stands at a podium, one hand holding a microphone, the other gesturing as he presents.

Ken Burns Makes the Case for the Greatness of 1776

Ken Burns talks about his new documentary, The American Revolution; the ongoing project of 1776; and why the war was more than a revolt of wealthy slaveholders.
by Ken Burns, Ed Rampell via Jacobin
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on May 8, 2026
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How Our Memory of War Can Shape the Future

All wars are fought twice: first on the battlefield, the second time in memory," writes Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen. This episode revisits a 2022 conversation with Nguyen about how the way we remember and selectively forget the ravages of war has the power to reshape our future.
May 7, 2026
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Reading Playboy for the History

A historian stumbles upon an article that provides a fascinating glimpse into how the world thought about witchcraft and sex in 1963.
by Chris Halsted via HNN on May 7, 2026
Alex Trebek in front of screens on the set of Jeopardy!

A Journey Through Trump’s Bizarre Statue Garden of American Heroes

The president wants to permanently honor 250 Americans with statues near the National Mall. There are some weird inclusions.
by Matt Ford via The New Republic
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on May 6, 2026
A collage of American symbols like the Statue of Liberty and the Liberty Bell.

Two Hundred and Fifty Years of Complicated Commemorations

Donald Trump’s aversion to admitting fault suggests that we will not see events that grapple with the nuanced nature of the nation’s history this July 4th.
by Jelani Cobb via The New Yorker
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on May 4, 2026
MV Louise Michel, 2021 pink boat.

Anarchist Afterlives

What should we make of the cultural legacies of revolutionary women, such as the anarchists Emma Goldman and Louise Michel?
by Clara Vlessing via History Workshop on April 28, 2026
Michael Jackson singing

Has Michael Jackson Been Forgiven? The Divide May Be Racial

A film on Michael Jackson sidesteps abuse allegations, revealing how fame, race, and nostalgia shape what society remembers—or chooses to forget.
by Matt Feeney via UnHerd on April 26, 2026
An monument of Abraham Lincoln and an enslaved man.

An Unsettling Anti-Slavery Memorial

One monument’s story shows just how quickly a nation’s ideals can erode.
by Jake Lundberg via The Atlantic
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on April 23, 2026
The memorial honoring victims of the Mỹ Lai Massacre.

Facing Up to the Horrors of the Mỹ Lai Massacre

At Vietnam’s Sơn Mỹ Memorial, the Mỹ Lai massacre lives on through museums, rituals, and memory—revealing how war, grief, and history remain deeply contested.
by Michael G. Vann via Jacobin
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on April 23, 2026
Close-up of horse's snout in Kara Walker sculpture "Unmanned Drone."

How Confederate Monuments Disfigure the Present

On MOCA and the Brick’s “MONUMENTS,” featuring Kara Walker and others, on Confederate monuments, public memory, and the afterlife of the Lost Cause.
by Horace D. Ballard via Art Forum on April 22, 2026
Auguste Regnier's painting, "Life of George Washington the Farmer"

George Washington’s Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory

If there are two rules about early American history, one is that, no matter how vast, George Washington will always be instructive.
by Karin Wulf, John Garrison Marks via Commonplace on April 21, 2026
A map of the Lewis and Clark exhibition.

The Hardest Part Of History To Tell Is How It Felt

After a brutal dog attack, a historian rethinks how to write about Lewis and Clark, focusing on lived pain, emotion, and the limits of understanding the past.
by Craig Fehrman via Defector on April 15, 2026
A statue called "Unmanned Drone" that reshuffles pieces of a monument of Stonewall Jackson.

The Strange Afterlife of Confederate Monuments

“Monuments” an exhibition in Los Angeles, interrogates the changing meanings of Civil War-era statues and their ability to shape historical narrative.
by Pujan Karambeigi via The Nation
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on April 15, 2026
Painting of George Washington on a plantation with slaves.

George Washington, Abolitionist?

On Americans' off-and-on, centuries-long effort to paint Washington as an antislavery crusader.
by John Garrison Marks via johngmarks.beehiiv on April 14, 2026
Crew covers a mural of Cesar Chavez mural at Santa Ana College

Cesar Chavez Was No Border Hawk

The labor organizer has been outed as a sex predator.
by Scott Greer via The American Conservative on April 11, 2026
AI rendering of the plan for the Trump presidential library auditorium with a golden statue of Trump.

American Idol: Trump’s Vision of His Place in History

How the president turns everything into idol worship.
by Zak Cheney-Rice via Intelligencer
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on April 8, 2026
Plastic play soldiers all facing each other on top of stickers of countries.

The Cold War of John Lukacs

It bears the mark of the writer’s life and his times.
by Alan J. Levine via Modern Age
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on April 8, 2026
John Garrison Marks and his book.

America Can't Let Go of George Washington's Slave-holding History

On the nation’s relationship to George Washington’s legacy.
by John Garrison Marks, Jeffrey Kelly via Mother Jones on April 7, 2026
Washington DC landmarks lighting up the skyline as fireworks flare in the background.

America’s 250th Is Repeating a Familiar Mistake

The question of how to reckon with America's past of slavery during the celebrations, such as the U.S. semiquincentennial, has a history of controversy.
by John Garrison Marks via TIME on April 7, 2026
Print featuring battle of Saratoga

For All the Nails

Robert Sobel reimagines the American Revolution.
by M. A. Davis via Age of Revolutions on April 6, 2026
Oliver Cromwell wearing armor

How Seventeenth-Century English History Shaped the American Civil War

Americans used history to shape how Northerners and Southerners debated abolition, often weaponizing the past instead of learning from it.
by Christopher B. Bean via Society for U.S. Intellectual History on April 5, 2026
Painting entitled 'American Progress' by John Gast

Frederick Jackson Turner’s Groundbreaking Frontier Thesis Was a Flop When He First Read It

How myth-making about the frontier shaped U.S. national identity, and who it left out.
by Megan Kate Nelson via Literary Hub on April 1, 2026
Images of Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln.

Walt Whitman, Abraham Lincoln, and the “Terrible Duties” of Democracy

Abraham Lincoln’s faith in the Declaration of Independence ultimately influenced Walt Whitman’s harsh but optimistic appraisal of the American experiment.
by Ryan Reft via The Saturday Evening Post on March 31, 2026
Illustration of a cowboy sitting on a horse with Red Bull look down on him

Unlearning the Myth of Red Texas

From cowboys to labor leaders, David Griscom's debut book calls on Texans to reclaim their leftist roots—and examine who buried them in the first place.
by Emily Carmichael via Current Affairs on March 23, 2026
Betsy Ross showing her flag.

What Betsy Ross’ Story Tells Us About Women’s Work in the Revolution

Ross probably didn’t sew the first American flag, but she was one of many craftswomen whose wartime labor helped build a nation.
by Marla Miller via The Conversation on March 23, 2026
Confederate statue in its original form, and pieces of it reassembled into a new piece of art.

The Lost Cause Gets a Tinseltown Makeover

Confederate iconography undergoes a rethink—and then some—at two Los Angeles museum spaces.
by Anna Venarchik via The New Republic
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on March 22, 2026
Statue of Caesar Rodney, when it was located in Wilmington, Delaware.

Statue Removed During a City’s Racial Reckoning to be Displayed in D.C.

A statue of Caesar Rodney, a signer of the Declaration of Independence who enslaved over 200 people, was taken down in Delaware, during 2020 protests.
by Joe Heim, Olivia George via Washington Post
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on March 18, 2026
Enslaved Africans on a dock, having disembarked a ship guarded by their captors.

Looking Back at 1619 in 2019–2021, and Beyond

1619 Project reignited debate over slavery’s origins, exposing tensions between continuity vs change in U.S. history and competing “origin stories.”
by David Waldstreicher via Reviews In American History
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on March 16, 2026
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