Excerpts

Similarities between Musk and Ford are not simply biographical: "they are about what kind of societies their versions of political economy produce—and require."

Beginning with his first job in the Reagan DOJ, the chief justice has been hell-bent on dismantling the Voting Rights Act.

Trade has always had to negotiate geographic bottlenecks, but by the 21st century, controlling access to the U.S. dollar seemed to offer even greater leverage.

The economic roots of the American Founding deserve to be understood on their own terms.

White Christians didn't get replaced—they changed their minds.

Like Imperial Japan before us, the United States has substituted tactical and operational planning for strategic thinking.

Get ready for new fights over racist gerrymandering.

While mainstream media misrepresented Black Power, African American-produced TV let Black communities tell their own stories.

Blue Power arrives in Washington.

We must recognize Democrats share responsibility with the GOP for creating the climate that made such a war possible.

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.

If there are two rules about early American history, one is that, no matter how vast, George Washington will always be instructive.

Has the American myth of the Good War helped ensnare us in bad ones?

A leader’s time in power is limited, but the consequences of their decisions are not.

As “Mad Men” depicts, history reshapes people’s lives, perspectives, and interactions, often without them fully realizing that things have changed.

In the 1940s, the unraveling of colonialism offered hope to Puerto Ricans demanding independence. But the archipelago was of military importance to the US.

Coalitions can postpone conflict, not prevent it.

The political, economic, and social impact of women gaining the ability to plan when to have children.

Psychedelics and religious revival.

On MOCA and the Brick’s “MONUMENTS,” featuring Kara Walker and others, on Confederate monuments, public memory, and the afterlife of the Lost Cause.

“Monuments” an exhibition in Los Angeles, interrogates the changing meanings of Civil War-era statues and their ability to shape historical narrative.

A film on Michael Jackson sidesteps abuse allegations, revealing how fame, race, and nostalgia shape what society remembers—or chooses to forget.

The TVA had more than its share of problems: paternalism towards the South, anti-Black racism, and indifference to environmental consequences.

How a bitter 1986 confab prefigured the Right's fault lines today.

Washington won by resilience, enduring defeats in New York yet securing key victories and ultimately shaping a stable, democratic nation.

Standard Oil hired photographer Gordon Parks to create propaganda which is nonetheless also astonishing art.

Early robots in the US evolved from symbols of revolt into racialized figures tied to labor and the legacy of slavery.

One monument’s story shows just how quickly a nation’s ideals can erode.

What allowed occultism to blossom in the United States at the turn of the 20th century? Linotype machines, cheap pulp paper, and newly improved postal networks.

What the Founders would have thought about Pete Hegseth lifting the requirement that service members get the flu vaccine.

Alleged sexual violence by Cesar Chavez reflects not just one leader’s failure, but a broader system of control within the UFW.

Tehran built a doctrine of resistance designed for export, not for local consumption, but then Washington broke a quarter-century taboo about striking Iran.

Demoralized Democrats have a road map for success in Trump’s America. It was written by Jesse Jackson.

Black Americans have long known that rights and protections can be taken away at any time. Facing such uncertainty, they found inspiration in Malcolm X's words.

The Plaza is a case study in the lengths to which New York’s leaders have gone to find gargantuan sums of money to enact wild new visions for the state.

The Franklin Roosevelt-shaped Court wrestled with individual rights as the nation fought to save itself and the world.

With Donald Trump back in the White House, the rewriting of the past has already begun.

A survey of presidential unilateralism going all the way back to the nation‘s founding.

How the labels applied to violence abroad affect how Americans think the U.S. government should respond.

Because so much of what we have come to expect of our country is unraveling, we have an opportunity to build it anew.

Slam Frank and musical theater’s Hamilton bind.

The US found a more efficient way to project power than simple conquest.

How the economic incentives of slavery shaped identity politics and racial hate.

Scalia misused state constitutions in District of Columbia v. Heller: most language about individuals bearing arms was added years after the 2nd Amendment.

Three competing narratives of the second Trump administration.

From storms to oil booms, the region’s past is marked by extraction, upheaval, and the migrations they set in motion.

Chronicling the history of drug trafficking in the U.S. Special Forces.

In 1972, 85% of Americans had been married. Today it's 70%. Here's what's really driving the decline.

It has helped the U.S. achieve a new kind of global influence.

For a brief period in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Texas was home to a working-class, populist environmental movement. What might its legacy be today?