Our Nukes, Ourselves

Nuclear heritage and nuclear stewardship in a quiet desert town.
KKK parade
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How Social Media Spread a Historical Lie

A mix of journalistic mistakes and partisan hackery advanced a pernicious lie about Democrats and the Klan.
Statue memorializing Irish immigrants.

No, the Irish Were Not Slaves Too

The myth of Irish slavery has found fertile ground in Internet memes as a way to derail conversation about the need for affirmative action today.

Reading the Soil

On the job with a pair of men who dig up bodies for a living.

Exit Through the Gift Shop

How do museum gift shops at Civil War sites shape historical memory?

'The Teacher Would Suddenly Yell "Drop!"'

The duck-and-cover school exercises from the nuclear era are being invoked as a parallel to active shooter drills.

In Winston Churchill, Hollywood Rewards a Mass Murderer

Are a few bombastic speeches really enough to wash the bloodstains off Churchill’s racist hands?

Pushing the Dual Emancipation Thesis Beyond its Troublesome Origins

"Masterless Men" shows how poor whites benefited from slavery's end, but does not diminish the experiences of the enslaved.

On Statues, History, and Historians

A case study from Texas in how Lost Cause mythology was promoted and reified.
Illustration of enslaved persons singing and dancing

Teaching White Supremacy: U.S. History Textbooks and the Influence of Historians

The assumptions of white priority and white domination suffuse every chapter and every theme of the thousands of textbooks that have blanketed the schools of our country.

Twenty-Four Things You Should Know about Pocahontas

To begin with, her formal name was Amonute.

Why White Southern Conservatives Need to Defend Confederate Monuments

Confederate monuments were essential pieces of white supremacist propaganda.

The Quiet Genius of Margalit Fox’s Obituaries

For years, she’s injected subtle, deft works of cultural history into the New York Times.

Men Write History, But Women Live It

The people who make it past 100, who watch the most history unfold, are almost all women.

Democrats and Republicans Are Increasingly Divided On the Value of Teaching Black History

Partisanship is much more polarized by racial attitudes than it was 20 years ago.

Dressmaking Led Elizabeth Keckley From Slavery to the White House

But her memoir caused a rift with Mary Todd Lincoln.

When Emancipation Finally Came, Slave Markets Took on a Redemptive Purpose

During the Civil War, slave pens held captive Confederate soldiers. After, they became rallying points for a newly empowered community.
Soldiers in the 15th New York.

Retracing Du Bois’ Missteps

A historian probes the ‘tragedy’ of the famed scholar's failed WWI history.
Woman wearing a VR headset.

The Future of History Lessons is a VR Headset

A conversation with the creator of a virtual reality experience that takes you inside the protests leading up to MLK Jr.’s death.
collage of disappeared webpages

The Internet Isn't Forever

When an online news outlet goes out of business, its archives can disappear as well. The new battle over journalism’s digital legacy.

How One Amateur Historian Brought Us the Stories of African-Americans Who Knew Abraham Lincoln

Once John E. Washington started to dig, he found an incredible wealth of untapped knowledge about the 16th president.
Poster for Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show reenactment of Custer's last stand.

The Indians Win

Why have Americans been obsessed with this one loss rather than dozens of victories?

Abraham Lincoln's Secret Visits to Slaves

Former slaves claimed the president came to plantations disguised as a beggar or a peddler, telling them they’d soon be free. 

Slavery and the American University

Determined researchers are finally drawing the lines between higher education and America's original sin.

Again with the History

Were the founders really warning us about Trump, or were they just playing politics, too?

History in the Face of Catastrophe

After my son died, how could I know anything for certain?
A painting of George Washington.

What Is Presidents’ Day Actually About?

For most of American history, Washington's Birthday was a really big deal, but that’s changed a lot since the middle of the twentieth century.

The Black Monuments Project

America is covered in Confederate statues. We can do better — and here’s how.
Painting of a slave auction.

Teaching Hard History

A new study suggests that high school students lack a basic knowledge of the role slavery played in shaping the United States.

Black Charleston and the Battle Over Confederate Statues

The debate over a Charleston monument to John Calhoun exemplifies the problems of contextualizing Confederate monuments.