Memory

“Paper City” explores the forgotten firebombing of Japan’s capital.

Seating was segregated, and the ceremony's only Black speaker was forced to drastically revise his speech to avoid spreading "propaganda."

"History​ is written by the victors, but diligent and continual silencing is required to maintain its claims on the present and future."

Accountability is crucial as we remember the individuals and communities harmed by our institutions and call for retroactive justice.

The commission is charged with renaming bases whose names currently honor Confederate leaders.

In early 1945, a six-panel comic in a U.S. pamphlet offered a visceral depiction of the Third Reich's killing machine.

A journey through the African American landscape.

Decorating graves with flowers, from a Civil War grassroots ritual of remembrance to a national tradition honoring all military dead.

The debate over abortion is an important part of the story of polarization in American politics, but it is not its genesis.

Some essential lessons from an earlier culture war.

Debates between neighbors escalate over the use of Confederate names within a Northern Virginia neighborhood.

Fifty years ago, a fame-seeker shot the polarizing politician five times, paralyzing him from the waist down.

Why our nuclear fears faded – and why that’s dangerous.

The 1836 Project will indoctrinate new Texans with fables about our history.

Cinco de Mayo has deep roots in Mexican American history.

A single choice can branch out to infinite realities.

Kristen Green’s "The Devil’s Half Acre" recounts the story of a fugitive slave jail, and the enslaved woman, Mary Lumpkin, who came to own it.

Joan Scott’s "On the Judgment of History" asks us to imagine the past without the idea of progress. But what gets left out in the process?

John Brown and the historical novel.

On Ian Tyrrell’s "American Exceptionalism: A New History of an Old Idea."

When Charles Sumner died in 1874, a bill he had sponsored two years earlier threatened to overshadow his legacy.

An interview with Woody Holton on his new book, "Liberty is Sweet."

Why are so many songs of the Confederacy indelibly inscribed in my Yankee memory?

Philadelphia gave America its flag, along with other enduring icons of nationhood. But for many, the red, white and blue banner embodies a legacy of injustice.

On Martin Luther King's use of radical ideas to create an understanding of the history of America.

Woody Holton’s "Liberty is Sweet" charts not only the contest with Great Britain over “home rule” but also the internal struggle over who should rule at home. 

In her thirty-two years as the keeper of Lime Rock Lighthouse, Ida Lewis challenged gender roles and became a national hero.

Nikole Hannah-Jones' new book sidesteps scholarly critics while quietly deleting previous factual errors.

The attacks on CRT have terrified our educators. But the public school system has always made it hard to teach controversial subjects.

Historian Daryl Scott weighs in on the 1619 Project and the "possibility that we rend ourselves on the question of race."