Excerpts

The historian Ada Ferrer’s new memoir retells the story of the island through the “utterly ordinary people” who matter most to her.

While working on the Smithsonian's Till exhibit, I learned how ideas about masculinity factored into the boy's murder.

A century ago, new technology and mobility reshaped what it meant to be young, linking rural life more closely to the city.

Misreading a nation’s morals can turn catastrophic.

More so than at any point in the last century, U.S. independence now seems like a parochial affair.

Newspaper columnists instructed generations of citizens about the Fourteenth Amendment. Today, the country seems to have forgotten how clear the law is.

Exploring the clash between progressive activism and new age spirituality.

The Netflix documentary series keeps its distance from substantive questions about Hulk Hogan’s legacy.

How did law firms and other professional workplaces become places of such crushing and soulless work?

On the soccer rivalry between the U.S. and Mexico.

A high court doctrine of 'animus' on the ropes.

A Civil War-era push for unity helped transform a little-known geographic boundary into a powerful symbol of American identity.

Jewish merchants on the island of Sint Eustatius helped sustain the American Revolution after the island gave the U.S. its first foreign salute in 1776.

At a time of rising Stalinist antisemitism, Paul Robeson’s act of solidarity made clear his stand against any form of racism.

The American war reshaped Ireland’s place in the empire, sparking a radical push for independence that instead ended in union with Britain.

Story of Bernie Goetz subway shooting and NYC 1980s fear, racial tension, vigilante justice legacy, and ongoing debate over crime and justice.

The modern idea of the freedom of the seas is collapsing in the Strait of Hormuz.

Avoiding conflict can precipitate a worse one.

What the weakening of the U.S. Women’s Bureau means for history, policy, and democracy.

Racist livestream “ragebait” reflects a long U.S. tradition of monetized anti-Black humiliation and white grievance.

A historian thinks about how interpretations of the American Revolution’s causes have changed — and stayed the same — over the course of his career.

The war looks very different in the context of ongoing European rivalries and trans-national alliances.

In the 1970s, the League of Women Voters promoted energy conservation and car maintenance, blending maternalist rhetoric with environmental advocacy.

Few figures on the left have been as committed to realizing the democratic promise of American politics as Eugene Debs.

William Billings has been largely forgotten, except among music historians.

A new book makes the case for engaging with the anniversary on your own terms and taking your own meaning from it.

It's time to let them go. A critique of "Professional Smart Guy (PSG)" Charles Murray's uncritical reading of Alexander Hamilton.

What history can teach us about where the anti-imperialist left should go now.

What are the rules that govern our workday? Who made them? And how do these rules dominate the rest of our lives?

How a landmark immigration law paved the way for Trump’s crackdown on immigrant families.

What 1826, 1876, 1926, and 1976 tell us about 2026.

Civil Defense and the Deep South in the 1950s.

The debate over Paine's legacy today is a proxy for a much larger debate over whose vision gets to govern.

Frederic Edwin Church sold a nation on its own mythology. That was his making—and his unmaking.

Orange County had almost no history of its own. It turned out to be the perfect place to invent America’s.

Tactical excellence without a strategic understanding is a recipe for failure.

History isn’t fixed or inevitable; it’s shaped by human choices. Flattening the past blinds us to present injustices and alternatives.

Trump’s “Rededicate 250” event reframes America as a Christian nation, despite the Constitution’s secular roots and “under God” being a 1950s addition.

The lies repeated to this day about Rustin’s position on the war help conveniently dismiss one of the most trenchant critics of the New Left.

What happens to our understanding of capitalism when we assume that it might not come to an end?

Old-timey Christian Americanism and the rhizomatic history of American fascism.

A music industry crisis and a moribund liberal political establishment are driving a rediscovery of rock’s potential.

As slave rebellions roiled the minds of 18th century Americans, enslavers looked to the state to enact a new type of policing.

The organization best known for its dance numbers and trick plays is now reviving one of the most entertaining—and controversial—franchises in baseball history.

Children’s books introduced Vietnamese refugees to US readers, often simplifying their histories and experiences.

As he fostered an apolitical public image of avuncular wholesomeness and nostalgia, Walt Disney grew ever vicious in his anti-communism.

Leaders must choose: public duty or private convictions.

A court in Pennsylvania gets it right, and the Fifth Circuit gets it wrong.

Amid contention, criticism, and compromise, a divided nation had to present a unified front. It came at a cost.

What should we make of the cultural legacies of revolutionary women, such as the anarchists Emma Goldman and Louise Michel?