Excerpts

Curated stories from around the web.
New on Bunk

How John Hersey Revealed the Horrors of the Atomic Bomb to the US

Remembering "Hiroshima," the story that changed everything.

The Forged Letter that Began a Mormon Succession Crisis

Miles Harvey on the life and times of James J. Strang.
August 31 1946 Cover of New Yorker magazine

The New Yorker Article Heard Round the World

Revisiting John Hersey's groundbreaking "Hiroshima."

How Is a Disaster Made?

Studying Hurricane Katrina as a discrete event is studying a fiction.

Panel Mania

An excerpt from a new graphic biography of Jack Kirby, the "King of Comics."

The History That James Baldwin Wanted America to See

For Baldwin, the past had always been bent in service of a lie. Could a true story be told?

The Roots of Anti-Racist, Anti-Fascist Resistance in the US

Robin D.G. Kelley on the predecessors to Antifa.

My Grandfather Participated in One of America’s Deadliest Racial Conflicts

J. Chester Johnson on the Elaine Race Massacre of 1919.

A Revolution of Values

Martin Luther King Jr. proposed a fix for America’s poisoned soul: ending the Vietnam War.

Infection Hot Spot

Watching disease spread and kill on slave ships.

The Nazis and the Trawniki Men

Decades after the war, a group of prosecutors and historians discovered the truth about a mysterious SS training camp in occupied Poland.

The Largest Human Zoo in World History

Visiting the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis.

The First Lady of American Journalism

Dorothy Thompson finds a room of her own.

I Am a Descendant of James Madison and His Slave

My whole life, my mother told me, ‘Always remember — you’re a Madison. You come from African slaves and a president.’

Did Medgar Evers’ Killer Go Free Because of Jury Tampering?

Jerry Mitchell revisits a dark episode in the struggle for civil rights.

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.
Statue of John Winthrop

"City on a Hill" and the Making of an American Origin Story

A now-famous Puritan sermon was nothing special in its own day.

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

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

Of Womb-Furie, Hysteria, and Other Misnomers of the Feminine Condition

Clare Beams on women's bodies and the power of names.
Map of Oregon

Oregon’s Racist Past

Until the mid-20th century, Oregon was perhaps the most racist place outside the southern states, possibly even of all the states.

How Nativism Went Mainstream

Three decades ago, California was the launchpad for a virulent strain of anti-immigrant politics that soon spread nationwide.

Day One at Yalta, the Conference That Shaped the World: ‘De Gaulle Thinks He’s Joan of Arc’

A day-by-day account of the historic summit in Yalta, seventy-five years later.

How the Bubonic Plague Almost Came to America

A Pompous Doctor, a Racist Bureaucracy, and More. From the book "Black Death at the Golden Gate".

The Legal Fight That Ended the Unjust Confinement of Mental Health Patients

Ayelet Waldman on the landmark case O’Connor v. Donaldson.

The Hipster

It happens every year.

How Christians of Color in Colonial Virginia Became 'Black'

Although the British settlers imported Africans from the first as slaves, the earliest Virginians had yet to establish many basic rules regarding slavery.

Martin Luther King Jr.: 50 Years Later

Activists today are taking up Dr. King’s mantle and reviving the Poor People’s Campaign.

The Life of Afong Moy, the First Chinese Woman in America

Contending with the orientalist fears and fantasies of a young nation.

Dream Come True

An excerpt from a new book reveals how Disneyland came to be.

When a City Goes Bankrupt: A Brief History of Detroit c. 2010

“The country cannot prosper if its cities are decaying.”

The Gay Activists Who Fought the American Psychiatric Establishment

Mo Rocca on the struggle to depathologize homosexuality.

Jim Crow Compounded the Grief of African American Mothers Whose Sons Were Killed in World War I

An excerpt from ‘We Return Fighting,’ a groundbreaking exploration of African American involvement in World War I.

Meet Mr. Mumler, the Man Who “Captured” Lincoln’s Ghost on Camera

When America’s first aerial cameraman met an infamous spirit photographer, the chemistry was explosive.

What’s Next?

Expanding the radical promise of the American Revolution.

The Midcentury Battle to Save America’s Cities from Crisis

Lizabeth Cohen on the poverty and prosperity of the American city.

Pornotopia

In the mid-20th century, Playboy wasn't just an erotic magazine. It was an architectural movement as well.

From Mind Control to Murder? How a Deadly Fall Revealed the CIA’s Darkest Secrets

Frank Olson died in 1953, but it took decades for his family to get closer to the truth.

The Slow Build Up to the American Revolution

American revolutionaries had a far wider range of reasons for supporting rebellion than we often assume.

On One of the Great Unsung Heroes of the American Labor Movement

Emma Tenayuca and the San Antonio Pecan Shellers Strike of 1938.

Nonsmokers, Unite!

The complicated privilege of forming a new constituency.

Teddy Roosevelt Hated Baseball

It was a struggle to even get the president to go to a game.

Jenny Zhang on Reading Little Women and Wanting to Be Like Jo March

Looking to Louisa May Alcott's heroine for inspiration.

How Google Discovered the Value of Surveillance

In 2002, still reeling from the dot-com crash, Google realized they’d been harvesting a very valuable raw material — your behavior.

A Brief History of American Pharma: From Snake Oil to Big Money

The dark side of the medical industrial complex.

The Political Chaos and Unexpected Activism of the Post-Civil War Era

Charles Postel on the temperance crusade that galvanized the American women's movement.

A Brief and Awful History of the Lobotomy

Groundbreaking discoveries... but at what cost?

Fried Chicken Is Common Ground

If you like hot chicken, perhaps you’d be interested in knowing where it comes from.

Why Were the 1970s So… Weird?

When the counterculture optimism receded, things got ugly.

American Green

How did the plain green lawn become the central landscaping feature in America, and what is the ecological cost?
Filter by:

Categories

Book Excerpt

Time