Illustration of a book reading "A-Z" with a laptop features as the pages.

Life Is Short. Indexes Are Necessary.

In 1941 an ambitious Philadelphia pediatrician, the wonderfully named Waldo Emerson Nelson, became the editor of America’s leading textbook of pediatrics.
D-Day landing.

On the Enduring Power and Relevance of America’s Most Famous WWII Correspondent

Clare Boothe Luce and Henry Luce in New York City, 1954

A Better Journalism?

‘Time’ magazine and the unraveling of the American consensus.
Artwork of Sojourner Truth, against a background of newspaper articles for women's rights.

The Truth About Sojourner Truth

She was a woman, but she was not the author of the speech attributed to her in popular lore.
Marijuana leaves superimposed over photo of two men.

The Dank Underground

In the late Sixties, countercultural media was distributed by the Underground Press Syndicate and bankrolled by marijuana.
Mother in bed holding baby.

Facts Don’t Change Minds: A Case For The Virtues of Propaganda

A better understanding of propaganda and how to use it as an educational tool could advance the world in a positive way.
A mold for casting color on a Peanuts comic.

The Sunday Funnies’ Colorful History

Look closely—very closely—at a Sunday comic strip in a printed newspaper.
Martin Luther King Jr., left, and Malcolm X, right.

MLK’s Famous Criticism of Malcolm X Was a ‘Fraud,’ Author Finds

Alex Haley’s transcript of his famous 'Playboy' interview with Martin Luther King Jr. does not match what was published.
A 1938 poster from the Women’s Field Army of the American Society for the Control of Cancer.

Should We Abandon the Idea That Cancer Is Something To ‘Fight’?

Is the century-old battle metaphor doing more harm than good to doctors and patients alike?
The Works of Mercy illustration by Sarah Fuller, 2019.

The Anarchism of the Catholic Worker

In its 90th year, the radical peace movement is reinvigorating itself by going hyper-local.
A photograph of Josephine Herbst overlaid on a newspaper article she wrote titled "The Soviet in Cuba."

How Josephine Herbst, 'Leading Lady' of the Left, Chronicled the Rise of Fascism

During the interwar years, the American journalist reported on political unrest in Cuba, Germany and Spain.

Traffic Jam

Ben Smith’s book on the history of the viral internet doesn’t truly reckon with the costs of traffic worship.
Security guards separate guests on an episode of ‘The Jerry Springer Show’ titled ‘I am pregnant by my half-brother.’

Jerry Springer and the History of That [Bleeping] Bleep Sound

As ‘The Jerry Springer Show’ climbed the ratings ladder, the censorship bleep became a star of the show.
Painting called "Hudibras’ Discomfiture at the Hands of the Skimmington," by Francis Le Piper, seventeenth century.

American Charivari

The history and context of the made-up aesthetics of the early Ku Klux Klan.
President Kennedy in the limousine in Dallas, Texas, on Main Street, minutes before the assassination

JFK’s Assassination and “Doing Your Own Research”

Revelations about secret government programs after Kennedy’s assassination increased the power of conspiracy theories.
Collage of BuzzFeed logo and people using electronic devices.

They Did It for the Clicks

How digital media pursued viral traffic at all costs and unleashed chaos.
Ronald Reagan and Bob Hope at a USO appearance at Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina.

How Woke Bob Hope Got Canceled by the Right

The conservative comedian spoke out for gay rights and gun control, and got boycotted and ostracized by friends on the right, including Ronald Reagan.
Elin, a puppet character who uses a wheelchair on “Sesamstrasse,” the German version of “Sesame Street.” (Axel Heimken/AFP/Getty Images)
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Should Children’s Entertainment Be Tweaked to Reflect Today’s Norms?

Children’s entertainment always embodies local values.
Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King.

The Night James Brown Saved Boston

The city might have gone up in flames after MLK's assassination, if not for the quick actions of a DJ, a city councilor, and The Hardest Working Man In Show Business.
Four men gather around a horse drawn cart carrying newspapers from Philadelphia, New York and Maryland.

There’s Already a Solution to the Crisis of Local News. Just Ask This Founding Father.

As modern lawmakers consider various means of public assistance for local news, they can learn from the founders’ approach to supporting journals and gazettes.
Life Magazine Cover, August 25th 1967, featuring a U.S. Marine and an Injured Child in Vietnam.

Life Goes to Vietnam

Debunking claims that news media fueled public disillusionment and cost the US victory.
People working in fields, figures in an account book, and a copy of the Guardian newspaper.

Guardian Owner Apologises for Founders’ Links to Transatlantic Slavery

Scott Trust to invest in decade-long programme of restorative justice after academic research into newspaper’s origins.
AR-15

Varmints, Soldiers and Looming Threats: See the Ads Used to Sell the AR-15

Through six decades, gunmakers and advertisers leveraged social and cultural changes to broaden the AR-15′s appeal.
Yoshitaka Watanabe family photo: from left Yoshitaka Watanabe, Toshiko, Masao, Kimiko, Tabo, Shigeo, Shizue Watanabe.

No, My Japanese American Parents Were Not 'Interned' During WWII. They Were Incarcerated.

The Los Angeles Times will no longer use "internment" to describe the mass incarceration of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry during World War II.
Elsie Robinson

'Listen, World!': The Story of America's Most-Read Woman, Elsie Robinson

She risked everything to escape a life of poverty and become one of the nation's most read columnists, while advocating for the advancement of women.
Daniel Ellsberg at a press conference in New York City, 1972.

My Fifty Years with Dan Ellsberg

The man who changed America.
J. Edgar Hoover and two other men pose with guns.

The Cult of J. Edgar Hoover

A zealot through and through, he ran the FBI like a religious sect.
Marihuana revenue stamp $1 1937

1910s Cannabis Discourse and Prohibition

Does marijuana prohibition have racist origins? Where did ideas of “reefer madness” come from? This project looks to the historical record for answers.
Fox News studios in New York in 2018.
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Fox News’s Handling of Election Lies Was Extreme but Far From Unusual

News organizations air lies from political figures more often than you’d think, but for very different reasons than Fox News.
Illustration of the word Facism, divided by various speach bubbles.

Does American Fascism Exist?

For nearly a century, Americans have been throwing the term around—without agreeing what that means.