Milton Friedman (L) and James Tobin (R)

The Forgotten Case Against Milton Friedman

In 1967, Milton Friedman launched a counterrevolution in economics that overturned the Keynesian theory of inflation.
Bylaw excerpt of racial restrictions in housing.
partner

A New Law Addresses the Harm Done by Decades of Racist Housing Practices

The Washington state law provides low-interest loans for down payments for those harmed by racially restrictive covenants.
Anti-Apartheid Rally, June 14, 1986, New York City.

Coke Money and Apartheid Divestment in U.S. Higher Education

US corporations, with universities as one of their stages, masqueraded as agents of Black solidarity while undermining the demands of African liberation movements.
A collage shows a white hand segregating Black Americans.

No Breakthrough in Sight

More than fifty years after the Fair Housing Act, inequality and segregation persists. What went wrong?
Boxing great Joe Louis stands in a gymnasium boxing ring as if ready for a match.

How Racist Car Dealers KO’d Joe Louis

A never-before-published tranche of letters reveals the white-collar racism that prevented the world’s most popular athlete from selling Fords.
Flight attendant serving a full meal.

Remembering the Golden Age of Airline Food

Why were in-flight meals so much better in the past?
An ad for a runaway slave in the Virginia Gazette, describing Thomas Greenwich, an "East-India Indian."
partner

“Of the East India Breed …”

The first South Asians in British North America.
Two horses and jockeys racing on a track.
partner

There Won’t Be Any Black Jockeys in the Kentucky Derby

Black jockeys dominated 19th-century American horse racing, but racism chased them away and undoing that damage has been slow going.
Political cartoon of the Lincoln Administration, reading "Running the 'Machine'", 1864.

Blues, Grays & Greenbacks

How Lincoln's administration financed the Civil War and transformed the nation's decentralized economy into the global juggernaut of the postwar centuries.
A First Republic Bank sign.
partner

First Republic and Our Undemocratic Bailout System

Regulators with no democratic accountability keep bailing out banks and big depositors — at the cost of billions to taxpayers.
Cover and pages of "American Redux" book about housing.

The Rich American Legacy of Shared Housing

A visual journalist remembers a time when "housing was more flexible, fluid and communal than it is today.”

Activist Businesses: The New Left’s Surprising Critique of Postwar Consumer Culture

Activists established politically informed shops to offer alternatives to the consumer culture of chain stores, mass production, and multinational corporations.
Campaign signs from the Carpenters and Millwrights union supporting Michigan Governor Grace Whitmer.
partner

Michigan Repealed Its ‘Right-to-Work’ Law, a Victory for Organized Labor

Labor activists can learn from the decades-long campaign to undermine their influence by focusing on state-level action to bolster their cause.
Lithograph of the Haymarket riot.

Chicago Never Forgot the Haymarket Martyrs

Ever since the execution of labor radicals in 1886, reactionaries have tried to tarnish their legacy — and leftists have honored them as working-class martyrs.

Anatomy of an ‘American Transit Disaster’

In his new book, historian Nicholas Dagen Bloom chronicles the collapse of public transportation in US cities — and explains who really deserves the blame.
From left to right portraits of Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Donald Trump.
partner

The 40-Year Path that Left the GOP Unable to Balance the Budget

First, the GOP became the party of tax cuts and now it won't touch entitlements — which makes a balanced budget nearly impossible.
CEO Eli Black (middle) talking with farmers at a lettuce farm.

The Banana King Who (Tried to) Put People Over Profits

1970s United Fruit CEO Eli Black got caught between the warring ideals of ‘social responsibility’ and shareholder gains.
Eugene Debs with Texas and Oklahoma socialists, c. 1910–14.

Texas Was Once a Hotbed of Socialism

In the early 1900s heyday of the Socialist Party, Texas boasted a vibrant state party that attracted oppressed farmers in droves.
An Arkansas girl in migrant camp near Greenfield, Salinas Valley, Calif., 1939. (Dorothea Lange / Heritages Images via Getty Images)

How Reading “The Economist” Helped Me to Stop Worrying About White Supremacy

A recent viral sensation identifies the migration of poor whites as the cause of the problem—letting the rest of us off the hook!
Woman smiling mischeviously and holding bottles of liquor

Whiskey, Women, and Work

Prohibition—and its newly created underground economy—changed the way women lived, worked, and socialized.
Signage for Hachette Book Group is displayed at BookExpo America in New York.

When You Buy a Book, You Can Loan It to Anyone. This Judge Says Libraries Can’t. Why Not?

The lawsuit against Controlled Digital Lending is about giving corporations—rather than readers, buyers, borrowers, or authors—control over content.
Dilapidated traffic sign reading "School Bus Stop Ahead."
partner

Child Labor In America Is Back In A Big Way

The historical record says we shouldn’t be surprised.
Painting of of C.L.R. James.

The Dialectician

The paradoxes of C.L.R. James.
Cartoon of ghosts surrounded by environmentally destructive technology.

The Palo Alto System

A new history dispenses with the sentimental lore and examines how Palo Alto has long been the seedbed for exploitation, chaos, and ecological degradation.
Nineteenth century nuclear family.

How Government Helped Create the “Traditional” Family

Since the mid-nineteenth century, many labor regulations in the US have been crafted with the express purpose of strengthening the male-breadwinner family.

Who Owns History? How Remarkable Historical Footage is Hidden and Monetised

From civil rights marches to moonwalks, historical imagery that belongs to everyone is locked away behind paywalls. Why?
Drawing of performers and different audio technologies.

The End of the Music Business

A century of recorded music has culminated in the infinite archive of streaming platforms. But is it really better for listeners?

The Middle Hutchinson: Elisha, 1641-1717

By leading the risky but eventually successful financial operation, Elisha justified his name.
1970s commercial airplane flying over a mountain range

How 1970s California Created the Modern World

What happened in California in the 1970s played an outsized role in creating the world we live in today – both in the United States and globally.
Black college students at Morgan State University, 1955.

No, the GI Bill Did Not Make Racial Inequality Worse

Popular narratives say that black veterans got no real benefits from the GI Bill. In truth, the GI Bill provided a rare positive experience with government.