Excerpts

Jarvis Givens rediscovers the underground history of black schooling.

When Executive Order 9066 forcibly removed my family from their community 80 years ago, we lost more than I realized.

The scholar has changed the way Black authors get read and the way Black history gets told.

The overlooked first mentor of Thomas Jefferson.

Unearthing the Black history in America’s national parks.

She animated the horror and emotional intensity in American labor songs by projecting them like a European opera singer.

From Seneca Village to “urban renewal,” the government has claimed Black property—rarely with the “just compensation” promised by the Fifth Amendment.

Close your eyes and imagine you’re married to Ernest Hemingway. Now, imagine it twice as bad, and you’ll be approaching the life story of Mary Welsh Hemingway.

What’s happening amid the coronavirus pandemic is nothing new.

A decade or two ago, opposing NATO expansion to Ukraine was a position espoused by pillars of the American establishment. What happened?

An act of love in the form of a medicinal tonic.

Why has Ukraine been a stumbling block for U.S. foreign policy since the end of the Cold War?

Freedman's Village, created in Arlington, VA at the end of the Civil War, became a thriving community of Black residents as part of Reconstruction.

After the passing of William James, mediums across the US began receiving messages from the late Harvard professor.

Since the mid-19th century, manufacturers have marketed guns to white men, especially young ones.

It’s hard to imagine having more direct control over a foreign country’s political system — short of a straight-up military occupation.

When Thomas Jefferson’s administration was debating whether to declare war against Britain, it came up against America’s wealthy and influential marine underwriters.

The female image is ubiquitous on social media, yet when it comes to pictures of parents with their children many moms feel disappeared.

The revolutionary may have tried to find my grandfather by raiding a New Mexico village—but a friend’s camera truly captured our family patriarch.

As cholera swept through New York, people tried their best to survive.

The reasons Black Union soldiers left their army during the Civil war were varied, with poor pay, family needs and racism among them.

Why can’t America see that?

A century ago, pundits, special interests, and politicians weighed in on what should and shouldn't be taught in history and social studies courses.

The 1876 presidential election, Potter Committee, and European perceptions.

The Midwest's long history as an epicenter in the fight for racial justice is one of the nation's most amazing, important, yet overlooked stories.

Documenting U.S. policy toward Iraq for more than two decades.

Fifty years ago, 160 young Americans defied State Department orders and partied on the streets of Moscow. The Cold War would never be the same.

It was shocking to see the flag greet Trump in Poland. But Europeans — some of them white supremacist — have waved it for years.

Reagan's use of jokes to openly mock the Soviet system were part of his broader Cold War strategy.

The unauthorized removal of the monument took place during the racial justice protests of summer 2020.

Nancy Sinkoff discusses her new biography of Lucy S. Dawidowicz, a Holocaust historian whose role in the neoconservative movement is often forgotten.

A little-known federal body gives official approval to what appears on maps. Now it is caught in the middle of the country’s upheaval over racism and language.

Tennessee’s surprising role in the adoption of life-saving seat belt laws.

On dying and heaven in the time of Longfellow.

Using the word incorrectly oversimplifies history—and won't help us address our current political crisis.

Be Woke presents Black history in two minutes (or so).

How the insurrection on January 6th brought a legendary assassin back to life.

Objects and documents, says the Smithsonian historian Paul Gardullo, offer a profound opportunity for reckoning with a past that still lingers.

An excerpt from the new anthology, “American Cult.”

Ariel Ron discusses the rise of the agricultural state in his book, Grassroots Leviathan: Agricultural Reform and the Rural North in the Slaveholding Republic.

How the Tragedy of the Commons theory played out in reality.

A review of three books about Abraham Lincoln, the 14th Amendment, and Reconstruction.

A new book aims to recover the Constitution’s pivotal role in shaping claims of justice and equality.

The king of ragtime published his hit tune 120 years ago. Pianist Lara Downes believes the piece helped shape the future of American music.

Amidst growing suspicion that equality talk is cheap, a new book explains where egalitarianism went wrong—and what it still has to offer.

Uncovering the life of Rose Dougan, a real Renaissance woman, and her pioneering role in preserving Native American art.

The topic is emotional. That’s not a bad thing.

On the relationships formed and marriages made by the fur trade.

Addressing systemic racism and state violence is not enough.

How the Windy City became a Latinx metropolis in the second half of the twentieth century.