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Curated stories from around the web.
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Demonstrators marching, holding an "End Racism" sign.
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The Freedom of Juneteenth Was Fleeting. This is What Came Next.

Black generosity has always been vital to the freedom struggle.
Photograph of Opal Lee.

"Grandmother of Juneteenth" Celebrates Federal Holiday -- But There Is More Work To Do

Before Juneteenth became an official federal holiday, 94-year-old Opal Lee was on a mission.
Portrait of stern looking John Winthrop.

Father’s Property and Child Custody in the Colonial Era

The rights and responsibilities of 17th-century fatherhood in England's North American colonies.
Silhouettes of a father and son looking at a sunset.
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Father’s Day Once Was Highly Political — and Could Become So Again

The holiday’s lack of history allowed activists to give it meaning after America’s divorce laws changed.
Illustration of catcher Buck Ewing of the New York Giants

Baseball's Reserve Clause and the "Antitrust Exemption"

The controversy between players and owners frequently brought baseball into the federal courts between the late nineteenth and late twentieth centuries.
“America” carrying the nation’s flag, circa 1860. Lithograph by Currier and Ives.

Our Flag Was Still There

In his comprehensive study of the national anthem, a historian and musicologist examines our complicated relationship to a famously challenging song.
19th-century pistol.

How 19th-Century Gun-Makers Helped Preserve the Union

As the gunmakers’ markets matured through the Civil War era, some began mastering the art of product promotion, following the lead set by Samuel Colt.
A horse trotting photogravure

The Murderer Who Made Movies Possible

When horses gallop, do all four hooves ever leave the ground at once? This episode of The Disappearing Spoon recounts the saga that led to the answer.
Actors on stage in "One-Third of a Nation." Library of Congress.

The Living Newspaper Speaks

Scripted from front-page news, the Federal Theatre Project’s Living Newspaper plays were part entertainment, part protest, and entirely educational.
An Chang Ho, Kap Suk Cho and other workers at Riverside orange orchard, California USC Digital Library. Korean American Digital Archive.

The First Koreatown

Pachappa Camp, the first Korean-organized immigrant settlement in the United States, was established through the efforts of Ahn Chang Ho.
Billy McComiskey (right) performing Irish music at the Library of Congress with his sons Mikey McComiskey (left) and Patrick McComiskey (center) in 2016. Library of Congress photo by Shawn Miller.

A Few Examples of Dads’ Traditions

Stephanie Hall provides examples of folklore and storytelling within a fathers' relationship to music.
Image of a father and child walking on a beach.

Mythologizing Fatherhood

Ralph LaRossa explains the problems with mythologizing modern dads and the stereotypes present within views of fatherhood of the past.
Photo Portrait of the King Family, 1966.

Reflections on Juneteenth: Black Civil Rights and the Influence of Fatherhood

From MLK to Obama, advancers for civil rights were driven by their fatherhood and dreams of better life for their own children.
Kris Manjapra standing outside by a wall. He examines the history of when slavery ended, emancipation laws kept the enslaved in bondage—and rewarded the enslavers.

How Slavery Ended Slowly, and Emancipation Laws Often Kept the Enslaved in Bondage

Tufts Professor Kris Manjapra examines the history of the injustice of abolition in the U.S. and abroad and the need for reparations in his new book.
Photo of a father and young child looking at each other

What It Means to Be a 'Good' Father in America Has Changed. Here's How.

"I think the key change for the invention of the modern father is in the 1920s," says historian Robert L. Griswold.
Yoko Ono looking pensive.

Yoko Ono’s Art of Defiance

Before she met John Lennon, she was a significant figure in avant-garde circles and had created masterpieces. Did celebrity deprive her of her due as an artist?
Kyle Rittenhouse waves to cheering fans as he appears at a panel discussion at a Turning Point USA America Fest event on Dec. 20, 2021.
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Bernhard Goetz and the Roots of Kyle Rittenhouse’s Celebrity on the Right

Why vigilante violence appeals politically.
Political cartoon with Nixon and his inner circle tied up with wires, each pointing the finger at another.

8 Cartoons That Shaped Our View of Watergate — And Still Resonate Today

Herblock, Garry Trudeau, and others created memorable cartoons that skewered Nixon and Watergate, making the era a boom time for political satire.
Daniel Mytens' painting of George Calvert, the First Lord Baltimore (1578-1632). (Collection of the Enoch Pratt Free Library / Baltimore, Maryland).

The English Origins of American Toleration

Can the origins of American religious freedom be traced to the religious and political history of England and its empire?
Sonora Smart Dodd; her father, William Jackson Smart.

The Forgotten History of Father's Day

Find out how one woman asked to recognize the fathers in her town and inspired others.
A picture of an assault rifle on a red background.

The Rifle That Ruined America

As an NRA-approved icon and the mass shooter’s weapon of choice, the AR-15 has done untold harm.
Rioter holds Confederate flag outside the Senate chamber after breaching the US Capitol on January 6, 2001.
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The Secessionist Roots of the Jan. 6 Insurrection

Southern secessionists in 1860 had similar arguments to those of the rioters who stormed the Capitol.
Black and white image of Arlington radio towers

When Arlington Set the Nation's Clocks: The Arlington Radio Towers

A century ago, Arlington was home to one of the most powerful radio stations in history, which helped to usher in an era of wireless communications.
Actress Bobby Bradshaw is tempted by a pearl necklace, 1925.

Pearl Jam

In the twentieth century, the mollusk-produced gem was a must have for members of WASP gentility. In the twenty-first century, its appeal is far more inclusive.
The first discovered T-Rex skeleton, on display in the American Museum of Natural History.

On Discovering the First Fossil of a T. Rex

In Hell Creek, Montana, with a lot of dynamite.
African American students and teacher in a classroom, Henderson, KY, 1916.

The Origin Story of Black Education

As Frederick Douglass’s master put it, a slave who learned to read and write against the will of his master was tantamount to “running away with himself.”
Picture of people outside of an abandoned movie theater.

BIPOC? ¡Basta!

Time to blow the final whistle on the oppression Olympics.

"Nature’s Nation": The Hudson River School and American Landscape Painting, 1825–1876

How American landscape painters, seen as old-fashioned and provincial, gained cultural power by glorifying expansionism.
Cover of "Liberty Is Sweet," featuring a painting of a man holding a gun to two soldiers on horseback.

Fighting the American Revolution

An interview with Woody Holton on his new book, "Liberty is Sweet."
A broken pencil lays on top of a standardized testing answer sheet
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What Today’s Education Reformers Can Learn From Henry David Thoreau

Snobbish elitism will hurt their cause.
A woman reads a book to a child
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What We Get Wrong About the Poverty Gap In Education

Poor children don't struggle in school because of their parents. They struggle because of poverty.
Free Banking Era five dollar bank note from Michigan.

When the Secret Service Was Only Interested in Money

In certain corners of the internet, you can actually buy money, but these bills are relics of the Free Banking Era that reigned from the 1830s to the 1860s.
Cover for a book of scrip for use at American Potash and Chemical’s company stores, 1937.

Greenbacks, Chits, and Scrip

Alternative currencies flourish in desperate times and situations.
Ada “Bricktop” Smith (far left) seated at table with other women, the New York Public Library Digital Collections, 1920 – 1929 (Courtesy of the Schomburg Center).

Behind and Beyond Biography: Writing Black Women’s Lives and Thoughts

Ashley D. Farmer and Tanisha C. Ford explain the importance of biographical writing of African American women and the personal connection involved.
Wilma Mankiller on a quarter

Reconsidering Wilma Mankiller

As the Cherokee Nation’s first female chief’s image is minted onto a coin, her full humanity should be examined.
Mental Health Youth Action Forum
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What the Civil War Can Tell Us About Americans’ Mental Health in 2022

Resiliency and the ability to develop coping mechanisms may define our times.
People holding union and BLM signs out of their car windows, taking part in the Workers First Caravan for Racial and Economic Justice, June 17, 2020, with the US capitol in the background.
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How Conservatives Drove a Wedge Between Economic and Cultural Liberals

Elites understood that a unified left spelled doom for their economic advantages.
Sesationalized painting of Native Americans about to scalp a white woman. The Murder of Jane McCrae by John Vanderlyn, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut

“White People,” Victimhood, and the Birth of the United States

White racial victimhood was a primary source of power for settlers who served as shock troops for the nation.
A group of white, male college students marching with a Confederate flag at the University of Georgia, 1961
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Politicians Dictating What Teachers Can Say About Racism Can Be Dangerous

College student essays from 1961 underscore why our current trajectory could be devastating.
Painting of an ornate urn

How Cremation Lost Its Stigma

The pro-cremation movement of the nineteenth century battled religious tradition, not to mention the specter of mass graves during epidemics.
Artistic rendering of a sheet of newspaper with people crossed out, flowing above people working menial jobs whose heads are also crossed out, working next to signs that read "Sorry."

On Atonement

News outlets have apologized for past racism. That should only be the start.
Images of European Immigrants arriving to America on Ellis Island.

The Myth of the Rapid Mobility of European Immigrants

Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan on the data illusion of the rags-to-riches stories.
Collage of of Stewart Brand peeking out from behind the earth.

Stewart Brand’s Dubious Futurism

What did the creator of the Whole Earth Catalog stand for?
Debt written on a blackboard

How We All Got in Debt

Consumer debt shapes American lives so thoroughly that it seems eternal and immortal, but it’s actually relatively new to the financial world.
Tourists explore cells in Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. Photo by Mark Murrmann.

The Gruesome Attraction of Prison Tourism Is Being Challenged at Last

“I’m amazed at how numb many of us can be about these sites.”
Utica, New York

How Utica Became a City Where Refugees Came to Rebuild

Utica became a refugee magnet by accident.
People walking towards the vigil for mass shooting victims.

Hiding Buffalo’s History of Racism Behind a Cloak of Unity

Officials have described the recent shooting as an aberration in the “City of Good Neighbors.” But this conceals the city’s long-standing racial divisions.
Battle of Little Bighorn

In the Battle of Little Bighorn, Custer Makes His Last Stand

"Who shall blame the Sioux for defending themselves, their wives and children, when attacked in their own encampment and threatened with destruction?"
A stone marked as a slave auction block and tagged with graffiti.
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What PTSD Tells Us About the History of Slavery

June, PTSD Awareness month, is a time to recognize how trauma has shaped our history.
A family tree relating Aaron Sachs' book "Up From the Depths" with Lewis Mumford and Herman Melville.

Why Reading History for Its “Lessons” Misses the Point

On Lewis Mumford, Herman Melville, and the gentle art of looking back in time.
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