Excerpts

Curated stories from around the web.
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‘Lock Me Up’: The Last Man to be Arrested for Defying Congress During an Investigation

In 1935, the case went to the Supreme Court, which upheld the Senate’s power to jail a recalcitrant aviation industry lawyer.

Creating Disneyland Was Like Building a Brand New City

Even Magic Kingdoms need urban planners.

If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Batuu

To work, a theme park needs to collapse the mythic pasts that it depicts with the pasts of our own lives.

John Wheeler’s H-bomb Blues

In 1953, as a political battle raged over the US’s nuclear future, the physicist lost a classified document on an overnight train from Philadelphia to DC.

‘Baby, It's Cold Outside' Was Controversial From the Beginning

Here’s what to know about consent in the 1940s, when the song was written.

The Ladder Up

A restless history of Washington Heights.

Afloat with Static

Jenny Turner reviews "Face It" by Debbie Harry.

Geopolitics for the Left

Getting out from under the "liberal international order."

The Framers’ Answers to Three Myths About Impeachment

Three misunderstood aspects of our governmental system, and the truth pulled directly from the Federalist Papers

Perhaps the World Ends Here

Climate disaster at Wounded Knee.

The University of North Carolina's Payout to the Confederate Lost Cause

The University of North Carolina agreed to pay the Sons of Confederate Veterans $2.5 million—a sum that rivals the endowment of its history department.
John Dalrymple

The Radical Roots of Free Speech

Conservatives like to claim that leftists are opponents of free speech. But that’s nonsense.

The New China Scare

Why America shouldn’t panic about its latest challenger.

Purchasing Patriotism: Politicization of Shoes, 1760s-1770s

Materials themselves, like shoes reflected and shaped political cultures around the revolutionary Atlantic and World.
An 18th-century kitchen in Morristown, New Jersey.

Histories of Hunger in the American Revolution

White soldiers, escaped slaves, and American Indians all dealt with food scarcity but often reacted to it differently.

The Planet is Burning Around us: Is it Time to Declare the Pyrocene?

Wild, feral and fossil-fuelled, fire lights up the globe. Is it time to declare that humans have created a Pyrocene?

Dream Come True

An excerpt from a new book reveals how Disneyland came to be.

The Seattle Protests Showed Another World Is Possible

Twenty years ago, demonstrations against the World Trade Organization opened the space for today’s critics of neoliberal capitalism.

The WWII Incarceration of Japanese Americans Stretched Beyond U.S. Borders

The U.S. government orchestrated the roundup of people of Japanese descent in 12 Latin American countries, citing “hemispheric security."

The Genealogy Boom Has Hit a Roadblock. The Trump Administration Plans Huge Fee Hikes for Immigration Records.

The fees could rise nearly 500 percent for files documenting the arrival of millions of immigrants to the U.S. between the late 19th and mid 20th centuries
Soldiers carrying a wounded soldier to a helicopter for evacuation.

Confidential Documents Reveal U.S. Officials Failed to Tell the Truth About the War in Afghanistan

For nearly two decades, US leaders have sounded a constant refrain: We're making progress in Afghanistan. They weren't, documents show, and they knew it.
Amazon worker depicted as a cog in a machine.

Life Under the Algorithm

How a relentless speedup is reshaping the working class.

The Last Shakers?

Keeping the faith in a community facing extinction.

The Power of the Black Working Class

In order to understand America, we have to understand the struggles of the black working class.

Enough Toxic Militarism

Decades of militarization in U.S. foreign policy have fueled violence at every level of American society.
partner

How Local TV Made “Bad” Movies a Thing

Weekly shows on local TV stations helped make the ironic viewing of bad movies into a national pastime.

The Tortured Logic of #ADOS

The American Descendants of Slavery movement combines a left-wing critique of America’s founding with a distinctly right-wing strain of xenophobia.

Inside a New Effort to Change What Schools Teach About Native American History

A new curriculum from the American Indian Museum brings greater depth and understanding to the long-misinterpreted history of indigenous culture.
partner

The Life and Times of Franz Boas

The founder of cultural anthropology, Franz Boas challenged the reigning notions of race and culture.
partner

"No" on Impeachment Unites Today's GOP. In the 1950s, a Renegade Dared to Break Ranks

Breaking with party unity can be costly. In the 1950's, Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine faced backlash after she condemned McCarthy, a fellow Republican.

Mikhail Gorbachev’s Pizza Hut Thanksgiving Miracle

In 1997, the former Soviet leader needed money, and Pizza Hut needed a spokesman. Greatness ensued.

Republicans Defending Trump on Impeachment Should Fear the Judgment of History

For Nixon stalwarts on the House Judiciary Committee, defending the President became an inalterable epitaph.

RIP Fred Hampton: a Black Visionary Assassinated by the FBI

Fifty years ago this week, a squad of Chicago police officers killed Black Panther leader Fred Hampton.

Constitutional Originalism and History

Does the most historically minded school of constitutional law push history aside?
Andrew Johnson impeachment.

The Common Misconception About ‘High Crimes and Misdemeanors’

The constitutional standard for impeachment is different from what’s at play in a regular criminal trial.
Disney animators on strike, 1941.

Animators Brought a Guillotine to the Disney Labor Strike in 1941

It wasn’t simply a static symbol – the “blade” actually moved.

How New York City Found Clean Water

For nearly 200 years after the founding of New York, the city struggled to establish a clean source of fresh water.

The Thick Blue Line

How the United States became the world’s police force.
Collage of scenes celebrating the passage of the 15th amendment.

Eric Foner’s Story of American Freedom

Eric Foner has helped us better understand the ambiguous consequences of what were almost always only partial victories.

An Unfinished Revolution

A new three-part PBS documentary explores the failure of Reconstruction and the Redemption of the South.

Where Does Your Tofurky Come From?

The first frozen Tofurky meal was a hard sell with retailers and a mad success with the customers who managed to find it.
Thanksgiving card featuring a turkey with a carving knife and fork in its back.

Talking Turkey

A conversation with food historian Andrew F. Smith on his new book, "The Turkey: An American Story."

The Way American Kids Are Learning About the 'First Thanksgiving' Is Changing

"I look back now and realize I was teaching a lot of misconceptions."
Bill Barr.
partner

What Attorney General Barr Gets Wrong About the American Revolution

The revolutionaries were fighting against arbitrary power and for checks and balances.

The Songs of Canceled Men

A new book asks how music criticism can reckon with the lives of immoral artists.
Andrew Johnson

Making Impeachment Matter

Democrats need to face up to their constitutional duty without fear.

When a City Goes Bankrupt: A Brief History of Detroit c. 2010

“The country cannot prosper if its cities are decaying.”
Trump with hands folded and eyes closed, as if in prayer.
partner

Explaining the Bond Between Trump and White Evangelicals

It's all about an agenda — and it's nothing new.

The Symbolic Seashell

Collecting seashells is as old as humanity. What we do with them can reveal who we are, where we’re from, and what we believe.
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Why Forbidding Asylum Seekers From Working Undermines the Right to Seek Asylum

A new Trump administration proposal would undermine the rights of all workers and harm asylum seekers.
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