Memory

Conservative influencers are pushing for a return to the dark days of 1950s inquisitions.

How Arturo Schomburg imagined a Black history beyond the United States.

A leaked database of proposed revisions, mapped.

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding. The 200th wasn’t exactly smooth sailing.

On America’s 250th anniversary, Ms.’ "Founding Feminists" series centers the women whose words, labor and resistance built—and keep rebuilding—democracy.

Indigenous slavery, which lasted for centuries, has gone by many names. A new public history project wants us to see it for what it was.

We don’t need permission from the government to commemorate a complex past.

As President Trump seeks to reshape its museums and other cultural institutions, wall text has become a battleground and documentation a form of resistance.

How the baddest man in the St. Louis underworld failed to become a folk hero.

A nation that wants to forget its past must be reminded of all of it.

The third installment of Ken Burns's series focuses on the war's carnage, but leaves viewers confused about the role it played in the nation's founding.

The traditional narrative of an integrationist vs. Black Power binary fades in the context of global movements for self-determination.

Learning on tablets at The People’s House.

On the United States’ 150th birthday, Calvin Coolidge said that the country’s work was done. Not everyone agreed.

Where it started, where we are now, and why I am not a huge fan of this holiday.

David McCullough helps readers understand why it's worth remembering the past.

Historian Thomas A. Foster discusses his new book "Rethinking Rufus: Sexual Violations of Enslaved Men".

The National Park Service has erased her story from Philadelphia exhibit.

Invoking the memory of Jewish persecution to denounce the assault on immigrants today is not an offense but a moral imperative.

The long history of Black heroism and service—and the current efforts to erase it.

How the Lowell mill working girls are being remembered in Trump's America.

Discussing effective historical analogies for the second Trump administration.

As America’s 250th anniversary approaches, the president wants to control the country’s future by bulldozing its past.

78 years ago, a US plane deporting 28 Mexican nationals crashed into California’s Los Gatos Canyon, killing all aboard.

Is it reasonable to invoke the memory of the horrors Frank suffered outside of a strictly Jewish context?

America continues to grapple with the legacy of one of its favorite Founders.

Its museums, more than any others, shape the nation’s narrative. No wonder the country argues about it.

When historical details are nonexistent, make them up. Not usually considered sound advice to historians, but possibly warranted under these circumstances.

Montgomery shows what’s possible when museums aren’t subject to capricious executive orders.

Our reticence to name the civic occasion we are marking this year points to a deeper uncertainty about how to relate to American history.