KKK members parade down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., on August 8, 1925.

When the KKK Came to D.C.

Revisiting a 1925 march through the eyes of Black newspapers.
Aerial view of Oakland.

The Future Happens in Oakland First. That’s a Cautionary Tale for Global Cities

International trade boomed with the city’s early adoption of technological and economic changes, but Black neighborhoods became ‘sacrifice zones.’
A young boy peers out from a hole in a fence as his friends play basketball in a court where police officers are gathering for a patrol.

How White-Collar Criminals Plundered a Brooklyn Neighborhood

How East New York was ransacked by the real estate industry and abandoned by the city in the process.
A drawing of a ship firing cannons at another vessel.

On the Colonial Power Struggle That Would Give Birth to the City of New York

For historian Russell Shorto, it was all about water.
A flooded road.

Jamestown Is Sinking

In the Tidewater region of Virginia, history is slipping beneath the waves. In the Anthropocene, a complicated past is vanishing.

Donald Trump on Mount Rushmore Would Make More Historical Sense Than You Think

That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

‘This Land Is Yours’

The missing Black history of upstate New York challenges the delusion of New York as a land of freedom far removed from the American original sin of slavery.
Collage of Chinese laborers.

When an American Town Massacred Its Chinese Immigrants

In 1885, white rioters murdered dozens of their Asian neighbors in Rock Springs, Wyoming. 140 years later, the story of the atrocity is still being unearthed.
A line of people swearing in as Ghanaian citizens.

The Land Disputes Facing African Americans in Ghana

Locals complain of losing out as wealthier ‘returnees’ from abroad secure prime real estate.
Bethlehem Steel Mill.

The Steel Mill That Built America

Bethlehem Steel was the birthplace of skyscrapers, bridges, and battleships. What happened after the plant's furnaces went cold?
A settler and a Native American shaking hands amidst a mosaic of huckleberries.

The True Cost of the Huckleberrry Industry

The Ḱamíłpa Band of the Yakama Nation has wanted an end to commercial picking of a critical cultural resource for years.
<p>Earth rising over the Moon, captured by Lunar Orbiter 1, 1966. Courtesy NASA/<a href="https://www.planetary.org/articles/1238" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Planetary Society</a></p>

How the Scientists of the 1960s Turned the Moon into a Place

For most of history, the Moon was regarded as a mysterious and powerful object. Then scientists made it into a destination.
The border of Petersham and Barre, Massachusetts.

‘A Vehicle of Genocide’: These Mass. Towns Were Founded on the Killing of Native Americans

Estimates say that millions of dollars and tens of thousands of acres of land throughout New England were given to soldiers who scalped Native Americans.
Airplane flying over a muddy, congested road near the Hoover-Washington Airfield in the 1930s.

The Humble Beginnings of the National Airport

A swamp with a busy road going right through the middle, Washington’s airport was called “a disgrace.”
Ken Martin and Ben Wikler at a DNC forum.

Ken Martin, Ben Wikler, and the DNC Chair Race’s Midwestern Moment

The region has unique political traditions tailor-made for the momentum gathering behind economic populism in the Democratic Party.
Drawings of Sadie James and Charles Page over a map of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The True Story of Tulsa’s Forgotten Antihero, Sadie James

And a walk downtown in search of her saloon, the Bucket of Blood.
Faneuil Hall in Boston at night.

Why Faneuil Hall Is a Metaphor for the American Revolution’s Complicated Definition of Liberty

How a lively market on Boston Harbor became part of many defining moments of the Colonial and Revolutionary eras.
Mountainous Alaska landscape.

Trump’s Push to Control Greenland Echoes US Purchase of Alaska From Russia in 1867

The tale of how and why Russia ceded its control over Alaska to the U.S. 150 years ago is actually two tales and two intertwining histories.
Sound waves.

Listening Devices

The veterans of Kagnew Station saw the early growth of the surveillance state. Has the passage of time given them a new understanding of their work?
A collage of rats, trash, rat exterminators, and a rat mascot.

Rats!

Baltimore's long history with its most polarizing pest.
Reenactors working with performance artist Dread Scott in 2019 retrace the route of an 1811 rebellion of enslaved people in Louisiana.

My Gun Culture Is Not Your Gun Culture

In Black Southern life, guns have been a sign of readiness against constant threats.
A map dedication from Osgood Carlton "to the select men of the town of Boston" in 1795.

Practical Knowledge and the New Republic

Osgood Carleton and his forgotten 1795 map of Boston.

Can the Rodeo Save a Historic Black Town?

One woman’s quest to rescue Boley, Oklahoma.
Hawaiian landscape.

The Hawaiians Who Want Their Nation Back

In 1893, a U.S.-backed coup overthrew the Islands’ sovereign government. What does America owe Hawai‘i now?
"I Baptize Thee," 1940 oil on burlap painting of a baptism.

How Memphis Gave Gospel the Holy Ghost

On the evening of October 7, 1952, gospel promoters booked the Spirit of Memphis for a concert in Memphis’s Mason Temple.
1908 forest fire in New Hampshire.
partner

The Burned-Over District

The Northeast caught fire this fall, in a way that recalls its past. History has some lessons about how to manage the region’s fire seasons to come.
Collage of Edna Ferber, a still from the film "Giant," and symbols of Texas.

The Carpetbagger Who Saw Texas’s Future

The notion of political realignment in the Lone Star State is older than you think. It goes back to Giant, an acidic novel by Edna Ferber.
Illustration of kringles in a Christmas parade.

How the Kringle Became a Wisconsin Christmas Classic

Trader Joe’s stocks an aggressively American version of the Dutch pastry, turning it into a beloved holiday staple nationwide.
Jade Stevens rests near Lake Putt on land in California’s Tahoe National Forest.

Can Land Repair the Nation’s Racist Past?

California’s approach to Black reparations shifts toward land access, ownership and stewardship.
Signatures on a treaty.

The Treaty on the Severn River

Baltimore is Native American land — that's the first thing I want you to know.