Excerpts

From Jefferson's viewpoint, Native peoples could claim a title to their homelands, but they did not own that land as private property.

James Longstreet became a champion of Reconstruction. Why?

On ramps, xonacatl, skunk eggs and more.

Why did future members of the modernist literary movement darken their skin, speak fake Swahili, and board a British battleship?

American thinkers consider what the already occupied West could fund.

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.

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.

How English words evolved on a foreign continent.

W.E.B. Du Bois’ message to African American artists.

A new book links the rise of American prisons to the expansion of American power around the globe.

The story of Mabel Ping‑Hua Lee.

On upending the accepted narrative of the movement.

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.

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

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.

Gloria Steinem on the making of America's first feminist publication.

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

Lionel Trilling crystallizes the cynical Cold War liberalism that sacrificed idealism for self-restraint.

The founding and funding of conservative media on college campuses in the 1960s.

The Index of Deep Disadvantage reflects a more holistic view of how we can define "poverty."

On the importance of material ownership in the context of Black history.

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.

Despite facing political headwinds and raising 'suspicion' among publishers, 'Reading Rainbow' introduced generations of American kids to books.

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

On the complex relationship between Black Americans and the Black church.

Civil rights activists failed to expel an all-white, segregationist delegation. But their efforts foreshadowed later milestones in the fight for equality

Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination was the fateful moment that the wave of hope finally broke for Black America.

Moral panics repeat, again and again.

Political repression through the suppression of free expression.

The tramp picks up his bowler hat and cane for the first time.

The controversial historian drew criticism from both left and right. We need more like him today.

And justified the most extreme responses.

The post-9/11 landscape witnessed crackdowns on New York City nightlife amidst efforts to increase tourism.

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

And the origins of the term “Kafkaesque.”

How Henry Ford managed the formation of the Ford Motor Company.

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

On the necessary “deep sincerity” of dark humor.

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.

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

How abolitionists viewed the American flag.

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

The view from nowhere came from somewhere.

The war marked a sea change in how black men viewed their own citizenship.

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

In 1928, two Americans invented a large metal breathing device that would become synonymous with polio treatment.

Redistributing land was once central to global development efforts—and it should be today.

Meet the self-help author who wanted to teach corporate America how to think.

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