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A U.S. Border Patrol officer shows how he found an undocumented Mexican immigrant under the hood of a car along the U.S.-Mexican border in March 1954.

Trump Promises to Deport All Undocumented Immigrants, Resurrecting a 1950s Strategy

Donald Trump says he will authorize a roundup of all 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country. A 1950s program with similar goals offers lessons.
by Katrina Burgess via The Conversation on May 6, 2024
Richard and Pat Nixon plant a tree on the White House lawn on Earth Day, 1970.

The “Carbon Dioxide Problem”: Nixon’s Inner Circle Debates the Climate Crisis

A collection of records from the Nixon Presidential Library and other sources on the internal debates Nixon advisors were having about climate change and environment.
by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Henry Kissinger, Hubert Heffner, U. Alexis Johnson, Rachel Santarsiero via National Security Archive on April 26, 2024
Scattered and Fugitive Things: How Black Collectors Created Archives and Remade History by Laura E. Helton.

Black Archives, Not Archives of Blackness

On Laura Helton’s “Scattered and Fugitive Things.”
by Dorothy Berry via Los Angeles Review of Books on April 22, 2024
Ansel Williamson, the trainer whose horse won the first Kentucky Derby, is depicted on the right in the 1864 painting “Ansel Williamson, Edward Brown, and the Undefeated Asteroid,” by Edward Troye.

They Were Born into Slavery. Then They Won the First Kentucky Derby.

As the 150th Kentucky Derby kicks off, the achievements of jockey Oliver Lewis and trainer Ansel Williamson at the first Derby have been largely forgotten.
by Dave Kindy via Retropolis on May 4, 2024
William and Ellen Craft

‘Master Slave Husband Wife’ Review: To Freedom Together

For Ellen and William Craft, a flight from bondage required a daring masquerade, with exposure a constant risk.
by Priscilla M. Jensen via The Wall Street Journal on March 5, 2023
A herd of bison.

A Panoramic View of the West

A sweeping new history examines many untold stories of the American West in the late nineteenth century.
by Bradley J. Birzer via Law & Liberty on December 13, 2023
A advertisement for the BankAmericard depicting it as a card for the American family.

How Did America Become the Nation of Credit Cards?

Americans have always borrowed, but how exactly did their lives become so entangled with the power of plastic cards?
by Sean H. Vanatta via Aeon on April 22, 2024

An Unholy Traffic: How the Slave Trade Continued Through the US Civil War

In a new book, Robert KD Colby of the University of Mississippi shows how the Confederacy remained committed to slavery.
by Rich Tenorio via The Guardian on April 28, 2024
Student reading history textbook
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A 1920s Lesson for the History Textbook Fight

The struggles of a century ago show that historians need to keep explaining their work and role to the public.
by Bruce W. Dearstyne via Made by History on April 8, 2024
Side-by-side photographs of Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison.

On Garrison, Douglass, and American Colonialism

Examining how William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass interpreted the nation's relationship with the Constitution.
by Maggie Blackhawk via LPE Project on April 22, 2024
Pro-Palestinian campus protest.
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Why Colleges Don’t Know What to Do About Campus Protests

Despite frequent litigation, U.S. courts have created a blurry line that puts administrators in an impossible situation.
by Jack Hodgson via Made by History on April 29, 2024
Beluga whales.

How P.T. Barnum Brought Beluga Whales to New York City

On museum ethics and animal welfare in 19th century America.
by Monica Murphy, Bill Wasik via Literary Hub on April 25, 2024
Collage of photographs of U.S. Border Patrol.

The Racist Origins of America’s Broken Immigration System

How a little-known, century-old law perpetuated the odious notion that certain types of immigrants degrade our nation’s character.
by Felipe De La Hoz via The New Republic on May 1, 2024
Black mother and son in front of their suburban house.

The Family Photographs That Helped Us Investigate How a University Displaced a Black Community

A longtime resident of Shoe Lane chronicled the life of his community as it was demolished by Christopher Newport University. His photographs helped a reporter seek accountability.
by Logan Jaffe via ProPublica on April 23, 2024
network of connected smiling faces

Ecstasy’s Odyssey

When the creator of MDMA first experimented with the drug, he felt a mellow sensation that he compared to "a low-calorie martini."
by Mike Jay via New York Review of Books on May 2, 2024
The Tontine Building, Wall Street, New York, 1797.

From “Boring” to “Roaring” Banking

On the mechanics of Wall Street’s influence on key institutions of American democracy, from the New Deal to today.
by Anna Pick via Public Seminar on April 29, 2024
Mounted NYPD officers parade down Broadway.

World War I Preparedness and the Militarization of the NYPD

From food rationing to drafting soldiers, preparedness and all it involved included a full-scale reorganization of American society, including the NYPD.
by Matthew Guariglia via The Gotham Center for New York City History on December 27, 2018
A drawing of Magneto wearing a kippah over his helmet.

The Judgment Of Magneto

From villain to antihero, nationalist to freedom fighter, the comic book character has always been a reflection of the Jewish cultural identity.
by Asher Elbein via Defector on April 24, 2024
Jack Conroy

Jack Conroy and the Lost Era of Proletarian Literature

In the midst of the Depression, Conroy helped encourage a new generation of working-class writers.
by Devin Thomas O’Shea via The Nation on April 30, 2024
A copy of "On Death and Dying" with a magnifying glass in front of it.

Lost in the Five Stages of Grief

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s “On Death and Dying” sparked a revolution in end-of-life care. But soon she began to deny mortality altogether.
by Colin Dickey via The New Republic on April 24, 2024
Side by side photos of Columbia University protests in 2024 and 1968.

America’s Colleges Are Reaping What They Sowed

Universities spent years saying that activism is not just welcome but encouraged on their campuses. Students took them at their word.
by Tyler Austin Harper via The Atlantic on May 2, 2024
A drawing of a moose skeleton
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America, Where the Dogs Don't Bark and the Birds Don't Sing

The Comte de Buffon's thirty-six volume Natural History claimed that America was a land of degeneracy. That enraged Thomas Jefferson.
by Lee Dugatkin, Matthew Wills via JSTOR Daily on November 27, 2019
Union members and civil rights activists in Georgia protest Shell's business with apartheid South Africa.

Galvanizing the American Public, ANC and Anti-Apartheid

How the ANC went from an organization whose role in the struggle was hotly debated, to being widely hailed as the heir to the international anti-apartheid movement.
by Jessica Ann Levy via Black Perspectives on April 24, 2024
President Kennedy hands Senator Estes Kefauver the pen he used to sign a bill.

The Greatest Show of Them All

How a New Deal senator’s anti-monopoly investigations changed American business.
by Jill Priluck via Lapham’s Quarterly on April 8, 2019
An American flag themed tapestry.

Do American Family Names Make Sense?

What's in a name? According to the "Dictionary of American Family Names," it depends.
by Peter McClure via OUPblog on April 12, 2024
Postal stamp featuring Benjamin Franklin.

Why We Still Use Postage Stamps

The enduring necessity (and importance) of a nearly 200-year-old technology.
by Andrea Valdez via The Atlantic on April 28, 2024
Image of Preston Brooks pummeling Charles Sumner with a cane in 1856 and a Trump supporter on January 6th, 2021.

The Illiberalism at America’s Core

A new history argues that illiberalism is not a backlash but a central feature from the founding to today.
by Julian E. Zelizer via The New Republic on May 2, 2024
Illustration of a man typing on his laptop on a rollercoaster ride.

Work Sucks. What Could Salvage It?

New books examine the place of work in our lives—and how people throughout history have tried to change it.
by Erik Baker via The New Yorker on May 1, 2024
Deb Haaland.

Deb Haaland Confronts the History of the Federal Agency She Leads

As the first Native American Cabinet member, the Secretary of the Interior has made it part of her job to address the travesties of the past.
by Casey N. Cep via The New Yorker on April 29, 2024
Illustration of Nancy and the first edition of the Emancipator.

He Published the First Abolitionist Newspaper in America. He Was Also an Enslaver.

When "The Emancipator" was first published in 1820, its original owner had to answer for why he owned Nancy and her five children.
by Anne G'Fellers-Mason via The Emancipator on April 30, 2024
A large crowd listening to Harry Truman give a speech on a train.

Harry Truman's Train Ride

A whistle-stop train tour, and some plain speaking spur Harry Truman's come from behind win in 1948 over Thomas Dewey.
by Michael Liss via 3 Quarks Daily on March 25, 2024
The Gateway Arch in St. Louis.
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Walt Disney Presents Manifest Destiny

On the St. Louis theme park that never made it past the drawing board.
by Devin Thomas O’Shea via HNN on April 30, 2024
Police beat protesters at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

The Plot to Wreck the Democratic Convention

May not amount to much, actually. Chicago 2024 is not Chicago 1968.
by David Frum via The Atlantic on April 29, 2024
Police arresting a protestor at U.T.-Austin.

College Administrators are Falling Into a Tried and True Trap Laid by the Right

Throughout the 1960s and 70s, conservative activists led a counterattack against campus demonstrators by demanding action from college presidents, courts, and police.
by Lauren Lassabe Shepherd via The Conversation on April 26, 2024
bags of money

Survival of the Wealthiest: Joseph E. Stiglitz on the Dangerous Failures of Neoliberalism

In which “the intellectual handmaidens of the capitalists” are taken to task.
by Joseph Stiglitz via Literary Hub on April 24, 2024
Joe Biden, with a nervous expression, campaigning in Wisconsin.
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How Trump Captured the Rust Belt—And What Democrats Can Do

History not only explains how the industrial Midwest became Trump country, but also how the area's politics may shift again.
by Stephanie Ternullo via Made by History on April 2, 2024
Mark Rudd speaking to protesters at Columbia University in 1968.

1968 Columbia Protest Leader Mark Rudd: These Kids Are ‘Smarter’

Mark Rudd says a lot has changed in half a century, but not the reason college kids paralyze a campus.
by Michael Daly via The Daily Beast on April 30, 2024
An activist holding a placard that says Stop The War On Women during the protest in Los Angeles in 2019.
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History Shows Abortion Bans Are a War on Poor Women

While some liberals decry abortion bans as a war on women, history reveals that this charge distorts the reality of their impact.
by R. E. Fulton via Made by History on April 15, 2024
A drawing of a hedgehog in Buffon's Natural History.

Waking From the Dream of Total Knowledge

Considering how relationships of cooperation and perhaps even solidarity might be forged between human beings and animals.
by Daniel Kraft via The Hedgehog Review on April 15, 2024
Posters for Beyonce's "Cowboy Carter" album.
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History Explains the Backlash to Beyoncé's 'Cowboy Carter'

Black cowboys made up as much as a quarter of working ranch hands during late 19th century. That legacy has been obscured.
by Elyssa Ford, Rebecca Scofield via Made by History on April 12, 2024
Ronald Reagan campaigns in Houston ahead of the Republican Convention in 1976.
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How Abortion Took Over the Republican Party

Ronald Reagan proved instrumental to Southerners bringing their cultural conservatism to center stage for the Republican Party.
by Jonathan Bartho via Made by History on April 12, 2024
Lincoln being sworn in by Chief Justice Taney.

We Are Already Defying the Supreme Court

The risks of calling on politicians to push back against the court must be weighed against the present reality of a malign judicial dictatorship.
by Samuel Moyn, Ryan D. Doerfler via Dissent on April 16, 2024
Basketball players taking a knee on the court and wearing "Black Lives Matter" shirts.
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How the NBA Learned to Embrace Activism

A changing NBA fan base drove the league toward an embrace of Black culture, and social justice politics.
by Adam Criblez via Made by History on April 19, 2024
An illustration of a tube of cream; reads "Hakka Cream Catarrh, Hay Fever, Head Colds, etc.)

Hay Fever

The nuisance of a new season.
by Erika Mills via Circulating Now on April 5, 2024
Volunteers at Big Creek Missions in Leslie County, Kentucky

Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood

I’ve been going back to eastern Kentucky for over a decade. Since 2016, something there has changed.
by Bradley Devlin via The American Conservative on April 22, 2024
Nutrition Facts labels
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What ‘Nutrition Facts’ Labels Leave Out

The history of the Nutrition Facts label exposes the power — and limitations — of such transparency.
by Xaq Frohlich via Made by History on April 11, 2024
Cover of "The Black Tax"

Tax History Matters: A Q&A with the Author of ‘The Black Tax’

The history of the property tax system and its structural defects that have led to widespread discrimination against Black Americans.
by Andrew W. Kahrl, Brakeyshia Samms via Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy on April 24, 2024
Sign reading "Welcome to the People's University for Palestine" at Harvard protest encampment

The Real Scandal of Campus Protest

It’s not that there has been too much student protest. It’s that there has not been much, much more of it.
by Erik Baker via Boston Review on April 25, 2024
Student protesters at Columbia University in 1968.

“The Whole World Is Watching”: An Oral History of the 1968 Columbia Uprising

In April 1968, students took over campus buildings in an uprising that caught the world’s attention. Fifty years later, they reflect on what went right and what went wrong.
by George Pataki, Mark Rudd, Nancy Biberman, Juan González, Hilton Obenzinger, Paul Auster, Clara Bingham, Robert Friedman, Eleanor Stein, Stuart Gedal, Arnim Johnson, Brian Flanagan, Raymond Brown, Karla Spurlock-Evans, Tom Hurwitz, James Branch, Michelle Patrick, Stephan Salisbury, Vaud Massarsky, Michael Rosenthal, Richard Eagan, Mike Reynolds, Gary Beamer via The Hive on March 26, 2018
Keith Haring standing shirtless in front of one of his paintings.

Angels with Dirty Faces

How Keith Haring got his halo.
by Zack Hatfield via Bookforum on April 12, 2024
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