Will Smith as the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Tracing the Evolution of Celebrity Memoirs, from Charles Lindbergh to Will Smith

Creating a personal myth allows celebrities to create just that—a myth.
A 1613 engraving of the July 1609 battle between Samuel de Champlain, his men, their Native allies, and Mohawk soldiers.

The Rediscovery of America: Why Native History is American History

Historian Ned Blackhawk’s new book stresses the importance of telling US history with a wider and more inclusive lens.
The community organizer Sylvester Hoover and Nikole Hannah-Jones, Greenwood, Mississippi; from episode 6 of The 1619 Project.

History Bright and Dark

Americans have often been politically divided. But have the divisions over how we recount our history ever been so deep?
Canons arrayed at the historic Yorktown battlefield.

What If There Was Never a Revolution?

A new book considers the possible alternative outcomes of the battles in America's war for independence.

Underage Enlistment in the United States and the Confederacy

Historians haven't only underestimated the sheer number of underage Union soldiers, they've also overlooked the internal battles those youths provoked.

2026 and the Role of Women

"Women of the Republic," published in 1980, has introduced generations to the role of women in the American Revolution and the possibilities of women’s history.
Two Pueblo people hold an American flag at the Ceremonial Cave of the Frijoles Canyon in New Mexico.

Without Indigenous History, There Is No U.S. History

It is impossible to understand the U.S. without understanding its Indigenous history, writes Ned Blackhawk.
Ned Blackhawk and his book "The Rediscovery of America."

Ned Blackhawk Wants to Unmake the U.S. Origin Story

Professor Blackhawk’s new volume attempts to put Native peoples’ stories at the center of the history of the United States.
A hand-colored 1892 print of the Battle of Fort Pillow, which shows Confederate soldiers massacreing Black soldiers and civilians with knives and bayonets.

At Fort Pillow, Confederates Massacred Black Soldiers After They Surrendered

Targeted even when unarmed, around 70 percent of the Black Union troops who fought in the 1864 battle died as a result of the clash.
Fisk University Class of 1888.

*The South*: The Past, Historicity, and Black American History (Part II)

Exploring recent debates about the uses–and utility–of Black history in both the academic and public spheres.
The Rev. Chad Varah, 66, at the entrance to his office below St. Stephen, Walbrook, the London church where he founded the Samaritans.

After a 1935 Tragedy, a Priest Vowed to Teach Kids About Menstruation

A teenage girl died by suicide after she started menstruating and not knowing what it was, in 1935. A bill in Florida wants to take us back to those times.

A Known and Unknown War

Twenty years later, I am living through the making of the Iraq War as history.
U.S. soldier in Iraq

Iraq Veterans, 20 Years Later: ‘I Don’t Know How to Explain the War to Myself’

Nearly 20 years after their deployment to Iraq, veterans grapple with their younger selves and try to make sense of the war.
A poster made by Ghazal Foroutan showing solidarity with the women of Iran

Was She Really Rosie?

The unlikely, true story of the Westinghouse “We Can Do It” work-incentive poster that became an international emblem of women’s empowerment.
Americans with signs and a banner Abdisellam Hassen Ahmed and his family to the US.
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Welcome Corps, the Newest Idea in Refugee Resettlement, Has Deep Roots

The new program might strengthen personal connections to refugees, but history shows there are potential downsides, as well.
White pillars broken in pieces, forming an X.

The Right Side of History

How should historians respond to the urgency of this current political moment?
The sillhouette of a Civil War statue on a night sky.

The Spirit of Appomattox

Why is Shelby Foote's Civil War subject to so much contemporary debate?
A shattered painting of Adam Smith.

The Betrayal of Adam Smith

How conservatives made him their icon and distorted his ideas.
An 18th-century building travels Feb. 10 from its location on the campus of William & Mary to Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area.
partner

Schools for Black American Children Predated the Revolution

Efforts in early America to educate Black children offer us a template for addressing educational inequality today.
Rap group Public Enemy: (Clockwise from bottom left) Flavor Flav, Professor Griff, Terminator X, S1W, and Chuck D

How Rap Taught (Some of) the Hip Hop Generation Black History

For members of the Hip Hop generation who came of age during the Black Power era, “reality rap” was an entry into the political power of Black history.
Senator Richard B. Russell of Georgia outside the U.S. Capitol in 1965.

The U.S. Senate Has Three Buildings. Why Is One Still Named for a White Supremacist?

Georgia’s Richard Russell was an unrepentant racist. You’d think a name change would be a no-brainer. And yet...
Waco City Hall and a historical marker for the lynching.

Inside the Decades-long Effort to Commemorate a Notorious Waco Lynching

After years of opposition and delay, Waco finally has posted a historical marker about the 1916 murder of Jesse Washington.
Two African American boys working in the Freedom Press Office in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in July 1964.

Florida’s Stop Woke Act is Latest in a Long History of Censoring Black Scholarship

America has been declaring war on Black education since this country’s beginnings. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Stop Woke Act seeks to continue this tradition.
Ron Desantis, his face partially covered by books, with soft gold lighting on his face and the book spines

The Forgotten Ron DeSantis Book

The Florida governor’s long-ignored 2011 work, "Dreams From Our Founding Fathers," reveals a distinct vision of American history.
Illustration of Abraham Lincoln writing the Emancipation Proclamation.

Abraham Lincoln Is a Hero of the Left

Leftists have regarded Lincoln as a pro-labor hero who helped vanquish chattel slavery. We should celebrate him today within the radical democratic tradition.
Workmen on the faces of Mount Rushmore, Pennington County, South Dakota, late 1930s. Roosevelt has scaffolding over his face.

President’s Day Is a Weird Holiday. It Has Been Since the Beginning.

How should a republic honor its leaders?
The author (left) talks with a student at the dedication ceremony for Annette Gordon-Reed Elementary School, October 2022.

A Historian Makes History in Texas

In the 1960s, Annette Gordon-Reed was the first Black child to enroll in a white school in her hometown. Now she reflects on having a new school there named for her.
David Grim's map showing the damage that New York City suffered from two large fires.

David Grim’s Fairy Tale: The New York City Fire In Myth

We may never know with absolute certainty that the Great Fire was an accident, but Grim certainly made it harder for anyone to argue otherwise.
Photo of Lynne Cheney superimposed over a photo of Ron DeSantis.

Ron DeSantis and the Specter of Lynne Cheney

Conservatives have long refused to accept that America’s past is complicated.
W.E.B. DuBois.

W.E.B. Du Bois, Black History Month and the Importance of African American Studies

As the 20th century’s preeminent scholar-activist on race, W.E.B. Du Bois would not be surprised by modern-day attempts at whitewashing American history.