Excerpts

Over the 20th century, capitalism preserved its momentum by molding the ordinary person into a consumer with an unquenchable thirst for more stuff.

The devastating cruelties these stories reveal also contain a fundamental truth about prison.

A new book frames this country’s tendency toward state-sanctioned murder as a unique cultural inheritance.

How a personal connection to Nick Carraway inspired the author to write the novel "Nick."

From "insurrection" to "rebellion" to "Civil War," finding a name for the conflict was always political.

A new proposal for reparations for slavery raises three critical questions: How much does America owe? Where will the money come from? And who gets paid?

Decades of discrimination in Fresno laid the groundwork for a housing crisis today.

By neglecting the history of the Black diaspora, Isabel Wilkerson's "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents" fails to reckon with systems of racial capitalism.

A primary source set and teaching guide created by educators.

When poetry met power in January, 1961.

Oil companies like to point to the demise of the whaling industry as an example of market-based energy solutions. The reality is much more complicated.

Down and dirty in eighteenth-century London and Boston.

The 1960s and 70s were a time of activism in the U.S., and therefore a fertile time for campus newspapers and the alternative press.

In Stanley Milgram's studies of obedience, people believed they were giving shocks to others. But did their compliance say much about the Nazis?

Hall of Famers Reggie Jackson, Dave Winfield, Andre Dawson and Derek Jeter sit down to discuss the Black gap in baseball.

The storming of the Capitol on 6 January was not a coup. But American democracy is still in danger.

The oval office looks different now that President Biden is its occupant.

On the HBO Max streaming service, with their skipped numbers, the episodes omitted from the 31 seasons of Looney Tunes are easy to spot.

Historian John Turner tells the story of Plymouth Colony with nuance and care.

The 1776 Commission marks the depth of right-wing commitment to ideological pseudo-history that can be used to shut down meaningful conversation about racism.

Sci-fi has long provided an outlet for socialist thinkers — offering readers a break from capitalist realism and allowing us to imagine a different world.

Peeples helps us to see that Poe’s imagination was stoked by his external surroundings as well as by his interior life.

A new biography of William Tecumseh Sherman questions his reputation as the brutal "prophet of total war."

Johnny Cash grappled with the many facets of the outlaw archetype in his feature acting debut, Five Minutes to Live.

Was he or wasn't he a member of the Communist Party USA?

A musicological conversation about the history and social value of Black music.

The ideals of the Confederate South found new force in the bloody plains of the American West.

While Herbert Hoover was deeply critical of his successor, he put aside his differences to ensure the peaceful and democratic transition of power.

An hour of stories about a few high-stakes inaugurations from the past.

Devon Price wonders why we equate sloth with evil.

41 men are still being held without charges, without a way to leave, without homes to return to.

A new history of five heroes of the revolutionary period considers the power and instability of charismatic leadership.

Implications for public record and legal proceedings after administration seized or destroyed papers, notes and other information.

It forced a conversation about the dangers of misinformation, one we need to have again today.

Radio Diaries tells the story behind those infamous words, and the man who delivered them.

John F. Kennedy's 1961 inaugural address remains one of the most famous presidential speeches.

Was Abraham Lincoln's the most tumultuous presidential transition in American history?

A genealogist takes a closer look at Joe Biden's family history.

What variables make a woman's inclusion in history more likely?

The definitive story of Wikipedia on its 20th anniversary.

The selection of African American Sen. Hiram Revels in 1870 offered great hope — but it was soon dashed.

In pardoning Nixon, the 38th president opened the floodgates to boundless executive power.

How 150 years of apocalyptic agitation culminated in an insurrection.

Ninety-six years after the book's publication, the characters of "The Great Gatsby" continue to mesmerize readers.

It’s not enough to bring the articles of impeachment against an official – you have to convict them, too.

A history of the United States shifting the financial burden of emancipation onto enslaved people.

Reconsidering Septima Clark’s life challenges many of our ideas about the Civil Rights Movement and women's roles in it.

From COINTELPRO to the NSA’s surveillance program, the US Government has been keeping a close watch on the American Left for a long time.

On the trail to Montgomery.

The ironies abound in the story of Reed, who made it possible to erect the statue that remains on the top of the Capitol dome today.