African American men in jail.

“We Were Called Comrades Without Condescension or Patronage”

In the Jim Crow South, the Alabama Communist Party distinguished itself as a champion of racial and economic justice.

Street Privilege: New Histories of Parking and Urban Mobility

How the history of parking in America highlights its societal inequalities.

A Brief Criminal History of the Mask

How a New York law on “masquerading” passed in the early nineteenth century has been used—and abused—in the decades since.

Richmond Rising

African Americans and the mobilization of the Confederate capital.
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Thomas Jefferson, Yellow Fever, and Land Planning for Public Health

Jefferson envisioned land-use policies that he hoped would mitigate epidemics – and other urban evils.

Power and Policing in New York City

How the NYPD and its conservative allies have used fear and race baiting to curtail attempts to limit policing power in the city.

The Largest Human Zoo in World History

Visiting the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis.
Nurse Minnie Sun holding a baby in the Chinese Hospital

When Chinese Americans Were Blamed for 19th-Century Epidemics, They Built Their Own Hospital

The Chinese Hospital in San Francisco is still one-of-a-kind.

Your Favorite Park Is Probably Built on Dead Bodies

New York City is considering burying victims of Covid-19 in public parks, many of which were already built on top of burial grounds.
African Americans gather near a Confederate monument.

The Confederacy’s Long Shadow

Why did a predominantly black district have streets named after Southern generals? In Hollywood, Florida, one man thought it was time for change.
Asian-Americans protesting COVID-19-related racism in San Francisco's Chinatown
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Xenophobia in the Age of COVID-19

Scapegoating immigrant groups in times of disease outbreak has a long history.
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Transcontinental

Ed Ayers visits the site where the transcontinental railroad was completed. He considers the project's human costs, and discovers how the environment and photography played key roles on the rails.
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School Interrupted

The movement for school desegregation took some of its first steps with a student strike in rural Virginia. Ed Ayers learns about those who made it happen.
Cars and buildings sink into the fault line of the Alaska earthquake.

In a Disaster, Humans Can Behave … Pretty Well, Actually

In his new book, Jon Mooallem tells the story of the Great Alaska Earthquake and Genie Chance, the woman whose voice on the radio held everyone together.
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Red Chicago

A visit with artists and public historians in Chicago who are working to keep the memory of the city's "Red Summer" alive.
People wave from a Sons of Confederate Veterans parade float.
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The Latest Battle Over the Confederate Flag Isn’t Happening Where You’d Expect

How the forgotten fight for the West exposes the meaning of the Confederate flag.

Roaming Charges: Super Tuesday at Manzanar

A report from the site of a former concentration camp.
A broadside featuring illustrations of coffins.

Colonial Boston’s Civil War

Bostonians refused to be forced to house British soldiers. So the army paid rent to willing landlords, and soldiers’ families settled down all over town.

When Robert Moses Wiped Out New York’s ‘Little Syria’

What happened to the former Main Street of Syrian America.

A History of Photography in America’s National Parks

From Ansel Adams to Rebecca Norris Webb, we trace the symbiotic relationship that the parks and photography have developed over 150 years.

Gossip, Sex, and Redcoats: On the Build-Up to the Boston Massacre

Don't let anyone tell you revolutionary history is boring.

Reversing a River: How Chicago Flushed its Human Waste Downstream

In 1906, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Chicago to move forward with a spectacularly disgusting feat of modern engineering.

Clipping the Devil's Rope

How barbed wire sparked a cowboy war and changed the American West.

The Most Fascinating Riot You've Never Heard Of

The Astor Place Opera House Riot of 1849 combined two of 19th-century America’s favorite pastimes: going to the theater and rioting.

An Inflammation of Place

On the symptoms and spread of Newyorkitis.

Here Come the Cul-de-Sacs

Satellite images dating back to 1975 allow researchers to map how millions of cul-de-sacs and dead-ends have proliferated in street networks worldwide.

The Real Story of the 49ers

The reality of the early gold-rush prospectors was not nearly as benevolent as the mascot’s wide smile may suggest.

How Nativism Went Mainstream

Three decades ago, California was the launchpad for a virulent strain of anti-immigrant politics that soon spread nationwide.
A team photo of the 1966 Ohio State Penitentiary Hurricanes from a newspaper.

Game Day at the Ohio Pen

Remembering the Ohio State Penitentiary Hurricanes—and the day my father played against them in 1965.
Fish in water next to rocks at the base of Kinzua Dam

Halted Waters

The Seneca Nation and the building of the Kinzua Dam.