Identity

Her ghostwritten autobiography diminishes her, and I found out why.

A new book highlights Josephine Baker’s wartime contribution, and how she used her fame to provide cover and promote equal rights.

Was the pro wrestler known as “the Cuban Wonder” really the first Black world champion?

The left case for an independent Canada.

Publishing needs his democratic spirit.

How did the U.S. government become involved in “adjudicating Indianness”?

Two new books explore the messy complexities of immigration—from the era of Lincoln to Irish New York.

“Mary Mallon was a cook. And her story, first and foremost, is the story of a cook.”

You can argue over whether Jimmy Carter was America’s greatest president, but he was undoubtedly one of the greatest Americans to ever become president.

Rouse reveals the hidden queer histories of suffragists like Alice Morgan Wright, who balanced activism with private, erased relationships.

The life of John Andrew Jackson — and the vacillating richness and scarcity of the archive.

The Civil War cut short many lives, and a new a book that blends the genres of history and memoir sets out the resurrect the memory of one of those lives.

On the transformation of Mary Harris into Mother Jones.

Transgender people's reactions to watching oral histories of the legacy of a 1966 riot in the Tenderloin that was nearly lost to history.

The early years of a future basketball icon.

Why black biography matters.

What accounts for white tribalism?

You are not Gen X. You are not a Millennial. Unless you are a Baby Boomer, you are nothing.

On the private and public lives of the author of “The Fire Next Time” and “Giovanni’s Room.”