The Rise of Anti-History

The Trumpist wing of the GOP uses history as a bludgeon, without regard to context, logic, or proportionality.
Jim Jones and family

In the Image of Jonestown

In our flattened historical imagination, pictures of atrocity and those of progress can coincide in unsettling ways.
John Henry swinging a hammer, with the steam drill behind him.

John Henry and the Divinity of Labor

Variations in the legend of a steel-driving man tell us about differing American views of the value and purpose of work.
Kimberlé Crenshaw

The Predictable Backlash to Critical Race Theory: A Q&A With Kimberlé Crenshaw

“Wherever there is race reform, there’s inevitably retrenchment.”
The raised fists of a crowd of protesters.

We Have to Face History No Matter How Hard We Try to Erase It.

Let’s remember that performative anti-racism is as profitable politically as racism has been.
An anti-critical race theory rally

To Understand the History Wars, Follow the Paper Trail

The history of racism, slavery and its impacts on American society is essential and appropriate for school history classes.
A newspaper drawing of the Nat Turner Rebellion.

Looking for Nat Turner

A new creative history comes closer than ever to giving us access to Turner’s visionary life.
People pose in front of the Stonewall Inn on the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York, on June 28, 2019.

The Republican Plot to Ban LGBTQ History in Public Schools

In a growing number of states, the GOP is pushing “Don’t Say Gay” laws to prevent students from learning about the triumphs and struggles of LGBTQ Americans.
Painting of the Continental Congress

The Pursuit of Happiness: New Approaches to the American Revolutionary Past

A new way to think about the American Revolution.
Tucker Carlson wearing a t-shirt with a photograph of Abraham Lincoln on it.

The Right May Be Giving Up the “Lost Cause,” but What’s Next Could Be Worse

The GOP’s new embrace of Lincoln, emancipation, and Juneteenth is no sign of progress.
Cartoon depiction of a confederate statue, its hat falling off as it is lifted off a pedestal covered in graffiti about love and justice

After the Lost Cause

Why are politics so consumed with the past?
Bass Reeves

The Resurrection of Bass Reeves

Today, the legendary deputy U.S. marshal is widely believed to be the real Lone Ranger. But his true legacy is even greater.
A group of formerly enslaved people at a county almshouse, c. 1900.

Juneteenth Is About Freedom

On Juneteenth, we should remember both the struggle against chattel slavery and the struggle for radical freedom during Reconstruction.
Woman with sign protesting textbooks

This Critical Race Theory Panic Is a Chip Off the Old Block

How 20th-century curriculum controversies foreshadowed this summer’s wave of legislation.
107th U.S. Colored Troops posing for a picture

People, Not “Voices” or “Bodies,” Make History

We need to do far more than “give voice to the voiceless" to win justice.
Jennifer L. Morgan portrayed beside her book

Black Feminist in Public: Jennifer L. Morgan Reckons with Slavery

On the intersectionality of enslaved women and common misunderstandings about slavery.
A second grade teacher and her students pledge allegiance to the flag circa 1970.

Is There an Uncontroversial Way to Teach America’s Racist History?

A historian on the unavoidable discomfort around anti-racist education.
Fist drawn on chalkboard

What Do Conservatives Fear About Critical Race Theory?

In the Texas legislature, Republicans seemed willing to acknowledge systemic racism but resistant to the idea of talking about it with children.
Illustration of Jon Meacham

The Man Who Loved Presidents

A review of Jon Meacham's newest book and documentary.
Students saying the pledge of allegiance in a classroom

The Fog of History Wars

Old feuds remind us that history is continually revised, driven by new evidence and present-day imperatives.

History As End

1619, 1776, and the politics of the past.
A slave in chains behind an American flag

Germany Faced its Horrible Past. Can We Do the Same?

For too long, we've ignored our real history. We must face where truth can take us.
Tulsa after race massacre

The Tulsa Race Massacre Went Way Beyond “Black Wall Street”

Most Black Tulsans in 1921 were working class. But these days, it seems like the fate of those few blocks in and around “Black Wall Street” is all that matters.
The Confederate statue, center, which was recently relocated from the Greensville County Courthouse, in its new location in the Emporia Cemetery in Virginia. (Julia Rendleman for The Washington Post)

The Confederacy’s Final Resting Place

Are cemeteries the right place to put Confederate statues and memorials being removed from court houses and town squares across the South?
Greenwood in ruins after the Tulsa Race Massacre

The Women Who Preserved the Story of the Tulsa Race Massacre

Two pioneering Black writers have not received the recognition they deserve for chronicling one of the country’s gravest crimes.
A flag bearing the likeness of the former World Trade Center destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is flown at half-staff during a ceremony to place a time capsule and plaque outside the Oculus transit station to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on April 30 in New York.
partner

Twenty Years After 9/11, its Memorialization Remains Contested

Should 9/11 remembrances include the global war on terror?
Survivors of the massacre looking through ruble

Photographing the Tulsa Massacre of 1921

Karlos K. Hill investigates the disturbing photographic legacy of the Tulsa massacre and the resilience of Black Wall Street’s residents.
Black children learning in a classroom

What’s Missing From the Discourse About Anti-Racist Teaching

Black educators have always known that their students are living in an anti-Black world and that their teaching must be set against the order of that world.
Image of a red elephant with text from the 1619 Project overlaid on it, against a black background.

Why Conservatives Want to Cancel the 1619 Project

Objections to the appointment of Nikole Hannah-Jones to an academic chair are the latest instance of conservatives using the state to suppress "dangerous" ideas.
An artist's interpretation of Phil Collins at the Battle of the Alamo.

The Next Battle of the Alamo!

Is Phil Collins's legendary collection everything it's cracked up to be?