Excerpts

Curated stories from around the web.
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Cover of book Seeing Red.

The State of Nature

From Jefferson's viewpoint, Native peoples could claim a title to their homelands, but they did not own that land as private property.
A drawing of James Longstreet, zoomed in on his eyes.

The Confederate General Whom All the Other Confederates Hated

James Longstreet became a champion of Reconstruction. Why?
Onions.

A Brief History of Onions in America

On ramps, xonacatl, skunk eggs and more.
Virginia Woolf and others dressed in blackface and Ethiopian clothing.

The Time Virginia Woolf Wore Blackface

Why did future members of the modernist literary movement darken their skin, speak fake Swahili, and board a British battleship?
Swale Land, painting by Edward Mitchell Bannister, 1898, depicting nature.

Vacant Unsettled Lands

American thinkers consider what the already occupied West could fund.
Cover of "Ghostland: An American History," made to look like a cemetery headstone.

The Family That Would Not Live

Writer Colin Dickey sets out across America to investigate America's haunted spaces in order to uncover what their ghost stories say about who we were, are, and will be.
Bison drinking from a pond.

How the Iron Horse Spelled Doom for the American Buffalo

From homesteaders to tourists to the U.S. Army, railroads flooded the Great Plains with people who saw bison as pests, amusements, or opportunities for profit.
A painting of an American landscape with green hills and a river.

The Early Days of American English

How English words evolved on a foreign continent.
Self-Portrait, by Samuel Joseph Brown Jr., a painting of a Black man looking at a portrait of himself.

A Right to Paint Us Whole

W.E.B. Du Bois’ message to African American artists.
Cover of the book "American Purgatory"

American Purgatory: Prison Imperialism and the Rise of Mass Incarceration

A new book links the rise of American prisons to the expansion of American power around the globe.
Mabel Ping‑Hua Lee holding flowers.

The Revolutionary Chinese Suffragette Who Challenged America’s Politics

The story of Mabel Ping‑Hua Lee.
Civil Rights march for jobs and freedom.

The Hidden Story of Black History and Black Lives Before the Civil Rights Movement

On upending the accepted narrative of the movement.
Close-up of the safety trigger on a handgun

“Come and Take It”: How the Aftermath of Sandy Hook Led to More AR-15s Being Sold Than Ever Before

Chris Waltz was appalled. He felt Democrats were using the Sandy Hook tragedy to tell him he wasn’t responsible enough to own an AR-15.
Recently freed African Americans receive rations.

The Origins of the Socialist Slur

Reconstruction-era opponents of racial equality popularized the charge that protecting civil rights would amount to the end of capitalism.
The American flag on fire.

The Fight for Our America

There have always been two Americas. One based in religious zeal, mythology, and inequality; and one grounded in rule of the people and the pursuit of equality.
Ms. Magazine cover, 1972.

We Are Not Alone: 50 Years of Ms. Magazine

Gloria Steinem on the making of America's first feminist publication.
Front cover of Rendered Obsolete: Energy Culture and the Afterlife of US Whaling.

Underground Whales: An Energy Archaeology

On the history of whaling and how we understand energy consumption.
Lionel Trilling

Liberalism in Mourning

Lionel Trilling crystallizes the cynical Cold War liberalism that sacrificed idealism for self-restraint.
Releases of the Republican National Committee’s Press Relations Department, 1939

Possibilities for Propaganda

The founding and funding of conservative media on college campuses in the 1960s.
A man walking down an unpaved street in an impoverished Appalachian neighborhood.

What the Best Places in America Have in Common

The Index of Deep Disadvantage reflects a more holistic view of how we can define "poverty."
Harriet Powers patchwork pictorial quilt.

How the Survivors of Slavery Used Material Objects to Preserve Intergenerational Wisdom

On the importance of material ownership in the context of Black history.
Cover of Dreamland book.

Undocumented and Irish

The actual, and mythic, roles played by Irish immigrants in New York now fed the imaginations of the young Irish immigrants carving space for themselves in the 1980s.
Television with LeVar Burton holding book and surrounded by rainbows.

How An Untested, Cash-Strapped TV Show About Books Became An American Classic

Despite facing political headwinds and raising 'suspicion' among publishers, 'Reading Rainbow' introduced generations of American kids to books.
A young Black boy pictured mid-flip, while his peers look on. In the background are a row of houses, one of which abandoned with the windows punched out.

What We Meant When We Said 'Crackhead'

“I’ve learned, through hundreds of interviews and years of research, is that what crack really did was expose every vulnerability of society.”
W.E.B. DuBois

How W. E. B. Du Bois Helped Pioneer African American Humanist Thought

On the complex relationship between Black Americans and the Black church.
Harry Truman speaking at the 1948 Democratic National Convention.

The 1948 Democratic National Convention Is the Missing Link in Civil Rights History

Civil rights activists failed to expel an all-white, segregationist delegation. But their efforts foreshadowed later milestones in the fight for equality
Aftermath of a riot in Washington, D.C., following Martin Luther King, Jr.'s funeral in 1968. Photography by Warren K. Leffler, via the Library of Congress.

After the Murder

Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination was the fateful moment that the wave of hope finally broke for Black America.
Illustration, The Burning of the Convent in 1834.

The Banality of Conspiracy Theories

Moral panics repeat, again and again.
Ernest Mandel

Ideological Exclusion & Deportation

Political repression through the suppression of free expression.
Charlie Chaplin as a young man, circa 1916

Charlie Chaplin Invents Himself

The tramp picks up his bowler hat and cane for the first time.
A U.S. flag superimposed over a crowd of faces.

Howard Zinn and the Politics of Popular History

The controversial historian drew criticism from both left and right. We need more like him today.
The John Rankin House, an original stop on the Underground Railroad.

The Underground Railroad Was the Ultimate Conspiracy to Southern Enslavers

And justified the most extreme responses.
Streetview of New York City.

How the 9/11 Attacks Sparked a Never-Ending Wave of Gentrification

The post-9/11 landscape witnessed crackdowns on New York City nightlife amidst efforts to increase tourism.
An illustration of William Morgan's abduction.

The Masonic Murder That Inspired the First Third Party in American Politics

Public outcry over whistleblower William Morgan's disappearance gave rise to the Anti-Masonic Party, which nominated a candidate for president in 1832.
Franz Kafka

How Franz Kafka Achieved Cult Status in Cold War America

And the origins of the term “Kafkaesque.”
Henry Ford

1922: Henry Ford on the Road to Riches

How Henry Ford managed the formation of the Ford Motor Company.
Police beating young people with nightsticks.

"A Trap Had Been Set for These People"

A companion to a new PBS film, "The Memorial Day Massacre," the first oral history exploring the murder of 10 workers in Chicago.
Henry David Thoreau with a propeller cap.

Henry David Thoreau Was Funnier Than You Think, Particularly on the Subject of Work

On the necessary “deep sincerity” of dark humor.
Cliff Joseph's art, Blackboard, 1969. One adult and one young Black person stand in front of a blackboard.

The Long War on Black Studies

It would be a mistake to think of the current wave of attacks on “critical race theory” as a culture war. This is a political battle.
A page of the 1838 deal by the Jesuits to sell 272 enslaved people.

The Families Enslaved by the Jesuits, Then Sold to Save Georgetown

In 1838, leaders of the Catholic order faced opposition from their own priests, but pressed forward with the sale of 272 human beings anyway.
Newspaper clipping from an Abolitionist paper

The Hypocrisy of This Nation!

How abolitionists viewed the American flag.
United States Capitol

America Is Headed Toward Collapse

How has America slid into its current age of discord? Why has our trust in institutions collapsed, and why have our democratic norms unraveled?
Photo-Illustraton of Adolph Ochs.

The Invention of Objectivity

The view from nowhere came from somewhere.
Tulsa, Oklahoma on fire during the Tulsa Massacre.

How World War I Inspired Black Americans to Fight for Dignity at Home

The war marked a sea change in how black men viewed their own citizenship.
D-Day landing.

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

A feminine paper doll surrounded by girl-coded outfits.

How “Gender” Went Rogue

Debating the meaning of gender is hardly new, but the clinical origin of the word may come as a surprise.
Child in iron lung.

How the Iron Lung Transformed Polio Care

In 1928, two Americans invented a large metal breathing device that would become synonymous with polio treatment.
The cover of the United Nations FAO-Unesco Soil Map of the World, 1974.

The Earth for Man

Redistributing land was once central to global development efforts—and it should be today.
Sculpture of Thinking Woman, by Louis Fleckenstein, 20th century.

The Birth of Brainstorming

Meet the self-help author who wanted to teach corporate America how to think.
Billy Graham at a speaker's podium (Photo by Ninian Reid).

The Preacher and Vietnam: When Billy Graham Urged Nixon to Kill One Million People

The disclosure of Billy Graham's recommendation of war crimes did not exicte any commotion.
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