Excerpts

On the 50th anniversary of “Chinatown” and the beginning of the end of petromodernity.

What was in the water circa 1992?

No, "history" does not tell us that the Democrats shouldn't change their nominee.

On our millennia-long love-hate relationship with getting in the water.

A new book brings to life the war in the South.

As the Supreme Court invents a law to negate all others, Chief Justice John Roberts now ranks just below Roger Taney.

The 19th century recovery of John Winthrop's sermon, "A City on a Hill."

On John Winthrop’s oft-misunderstood use of the phrase “a city upon a hill” to describe the New World.

Reporter Catherine Moore visits the first hospital in the New World and finds out why the “public plan” in the Virginia colony may have had its drawbacks.

For every moment of historical significance, there is a figure — often hidden — who fed the figures we do remember.

Estimating life and death in Iraq and Gaza.

Deindustrialization has helped create a right-wing turn in many Midwestern towns. Long traditions of labor militancy can explain why it hasn’t in others.

In 1987, the Supreme Court came within one vote of eliminating capital punishment in Georgia because of of racial disparities.

Fanny Angelina Hesse introduced agar to the life sciences in 1881. A trove of unpublished family papers sheds new light on her many accomplishments.

The Freedom Schools curriculums developed in 1964 remain urgently needed, especially in our era of book bans and backlash.

Fifty years after ruling against a corrupt president, the Court has now decided that presidents are above the law.

Activists including W. E .B. Du Bois in the United States and Lajpat Rai in India drew connections between Black American and Indian experiences of white rule.

The North’s fruitful partnership with Liberian farmers fueled a steady supply of an essential beverage.

The peach industry represented a new, scientifically driven economy for Georgia, but it also depended on the rhythms and racial stereotypes of cotton farming.

The hard labor behind what was once one of the nation's most significant industries.

I would know.

How did the sensuality, sexuality, and homosociality of exercise create intimate possibilities for Black women in postwar America?

American art and the Cold War.

A new book argues that Irish famine philanthropy “went viral” in the nineteenth century because relief has been, and continues to be, politically potent.

Two court cases that defined and changed the nature of personhood.

An overlooked effect of the legislation, passed 60 years ago this week, was its powerful message of hope for Black Americans.

Despite its failures and limitations, the American Revolution unleashed popular aspirations to throw off tyranny of all kinds.

The long history and contemporary relevance of war tax resistance.

Eighty years ago, Americans embraced a new definition of their faith: “The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right.”

America’s founding document is now an all-but-meaningless scrap of paper. Happy Fourth!

The Supreme Court doesn't have the last word; the people do. How attorneys pushed back on the flawed 1987 McCleskey decision.

The belief of first-generation Japanese immigrants in their racial superiority over Filipinos was a by-product of the San Joaquin Delta's white hegemony.

A case study from the smallpox epidemic among North Carolina Moravians.

Putting the burden on the government to demonstrate significant risk of harm before regulating has allowed willful ignorance to undermine public health.

American empire, bananas, and the Crescent City.

Athletes drank poison, dodged traffic, stole peaches and even hitchhiked during the 24.85-mile race in St. Louis.

“Night Flyer” expands Harriet Tubman’s legacy to include her family, community and “eco-spiritual worldview.”

Looking back at Horace M. Kallen's collection of essays entitled "Culture and Democracy in the United States."

Concerns about privacy and pressures regarding the physical appearance of women and their homes contributed to the failure of AT&T’s 1960s Picturephone.

Steven Hyden's new book about Bruce Springsteen's iconic "Born in the U.S.A" album is the product of a lifelong passion for the music of "The Boss."

Charting the history of a TV phenomenon.

The colonial rebellion we celebrate every July 4th doesn’t fit the definition.

As Democrats debate whether Joe Biden should stay in the race against Trump, LBJ’s often misunderstood example looms.

The removal of Indigenous people was a national priority with broad consensus.

The crazy history of nominating Conventions.

A new book argues that worship of the Constitution has distorted our politics.

A look at how and why African Americans first started to abandon the GOP for the Democratic Party.

Bill Trueheart's battles with friend and fellow Foreign Service officer Fritz Nolting illustrate the American tragedy in Southeast Asia.

The conservative justices have ignored history altogether and created a shocking new precedent: The president is above the law.

The city in summer floated in a daze that moved otherwise sensible people to repeat endlessly the brainless greeting “Hot enough for ya?”