Matthew Wills

Under the influence of Muscular Christianity, Jesus transformed into a muscle-bound Aryan, saving souls through strength and masculinity.

In Oregon in the 1960s, the debate over capital punishment hinged on shifting interpretations of the gendered female body.

Pachappa Camp, the first Korean-organized immigrant settlement in the United States, was established through the efforts of Ahn Chang Ho.

Dueling was a dangerous, ritualized response to a real (or perceived) slight. It may also have been a means of proving one's social and economic capital.

One focus of the 1960s struggle for civil rights in the North were the construction industries of Philadelphia, New York and Cleveland.

In the 1970s, NOW began to ask hard questions about the women who were no longer "homemakers", displaced from the only role they were thought to need.

Current attempts to correct historical discrimination by local and regional offices of the USDA have been met with charges of "reverse discrimination."

The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the U.S. came with censorship and obfuscation about the effects of the radiation on those who were exposed.

The reasons Black Union soldiers left their army during the Civil war were varied, with poor pay, family needs and racism among them.

The history of French settlement in "le pays des Illinois" is not well-known by Americans, and what is known is being revisited by historians.

A 1763 massacre by colonial settlers exposed the the irreconcilable contradictions of conquest by people concerned with civility.

The man who introduced mesmerism to the US was a slave-owner from Guadeloupe, where planters were experimenting with “magnetizing” their enslaved people.

World War I saw the availability of potash plummet, while its price doubled. The US found this critical component for multiple industries in Pacific kelp.

When states began restricting labor by children, verifying a person's age became an important means of enforcement.

When it seemed that steel had lost its gleam with American consumers, the industry turned to marketing to make it shine again.

In the early 20th century, labor unrest and strike breaking were done not by the government, but by private agencies and self-appointed vigilantes.

“European and Indian men—as captors, brokers, and buyers—used captured and enslaved women to craft relationships of trade and reciprocity with one another.”

How come it's so hard to go in sweet privacy when you're out and about?

From the colonial period to the end of the US Civil War, the rattlesnake sssssssymbolized everything from evil to unity and power.

As Progressive Era reforms increased the power of government, organized opposition to vaccination campaigns took on a new life.

A bottle of bitters from about 1918 had significant amounts of alcohol and lead—and not a trace of the supposed active ingredient.

Who made sure Henry David Thoreau's works came out after his death? His sister.

Hollywood was just fine avoiding all portrayals of the Central Intelligence Agency for years after the agency's founding in 1947.

She was one half of a powerhouse academic couple and an influential historian in her own right. But she's still often overlooked.