Excerpts

Curated stories from around the web.
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Paso del Norte International Bridge.

On the Edges of Fascism and Other Unsettling Possibilities

The legacy of the Immigration Act of 1924 and the launching of the Border Patrol, which inaugurated the most restrictive era of US immigration until our own.
Still from Pretty Poison (1968).

The All-American Crack-Up in 1960s Hollywood Cinema

Starting in the 1960s, more and more Hollywood films depicted an increasingly violent and alienated American society quickly losing its mind.
Montage of 1980s Yuppies and a Trump rally.

How 1980s Yuppies Gave Us Donald Trump

If it weren’t for the young urban professionals of the 1980s, we’d never have MAGA.
A line crew at work in the Manzanar camp.

A Portrait of Japanese America, in the Shadow of the Camps

An essential new volume collects accounts of Japanese incarceration by patriotic idealists, righteous firebrands, and downtrodden cynics alike.
American Indians outside of Fort Laramie.

“Invasion is a Structure Not an Event.” On Settler Colonialism and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness

When he reflected on the consequences of empire, Conrad saw no logic or teleology. He saw mayhem. There is no surety in "Heart of Darkness."
Rudy Giuliani in front of American flag

Rhyme, Not Repetition

All that’s past isn’t necessarily present.
Four women reading books inside a room at a women's boarding house.

At the Webster Apartments: One of Manhattan’s Last All-Women’s Boarding Houses

A look inside an enduring home for women 100 years after its doors first opened to residents.
Crowd in front of Washington Monument for presidential inauguration
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Monumental Disagreements

On America's iconic monuments and the idea of national remembrance.
A drawing of a crowd watching a baseball game in 1886.

Before ‘Fans,’ There Were ‘Kranks,’ ‘Longhairs,’ and ‘Lions’

How do fandoms gain their names?
A painting of Prince Albert Edward's visit to George Washington's tomb.
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On the Road to Ruin with Their Characteristic Speed

Waiting for the start of the American Civil War in Canada and the Caribbean.

A First Case at Common Law

The case of Robinson and Roberts v. Wheble provides legal historians with the most thorough documentation of an eighteenth-century trademark dispute.
A photograph of Waverly Woodson Jr. in his U.S. Army uniform.

The Forgotten Hero of D-Day

Waverly Woodson treated men for 30 hours on Omaha Beach, but his heroism became a casualty of entrenched racism, bureaucracy and Pentagon record-keeping.
Boy receiving measles vaccination
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The Public Health Community Must Tell the Whole Measles Story

The anti-vaccine movement has gained ground because the public health community has denied the truth about measles.
San Francisco Communist Party marching in May Day parade, 1935.

California Communism and Its Afterlives

A new book explores the Communist Party's western base and its alliance with the labor movement.
Frozen truck on icy road

The Frozen Trucker and the Fugitive Slave

On the TransAm Trucking case, legal reasoning, and the Fugitive Slave Act.
Student watching smoke emanating from the student center after 1969 protests.

The CUNY Experiment

The City University of New York has long stood at once for meritocratic uplift and for civil disobedience.
Plastic kitchen containers in red liquid.

How 3M Discovered, Then Concealed, the Dangers of Forever Chemicals

The company found its own toxic compounds in human blood—and kept selling them.
A stylized drawing of an insulin vial.

The Insulin Empire

Insulin transforms a sick body. It also has the potential to reconstitute our political economic realities.
Election Day in Philadelphia, John Lewis Krimmel.

A More Imperfect Union: How Differing National Visions Divided the North and the South

On the fragile facade of republicanism in 19th century America.
A collage of the Eugene V. Debbs museum and advertisements for his presidential campaign from prison inside the museums collection.

‘Unless Jesus Christ Was Running’: In MAGA Country, Post-Verdict Trump is Still the Answer

Eugene Debs ran for president from prison. His former bellwether county — and museum — both hold lessons for Trump’s campaign.
Sandinista rebels ride a tank in Managua in 1979.
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The U.S. Isn’t the Main Character of This History

Researching the Sandinista Revolution from Nicaraguans’ perspective.
Spindle boys in Georgia cotton mill.
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America Has Been Having the Same Debate About Child Labor for 100 Years

A century ago, debates about the failed Child Labor Amendment turned on larger issues about work, childhood, and the role of government.
Street sign for Emancipation Ave.

The Border Patrol and Asylum Exclusion

Border Patrol has abused its authority and mistreated migrants in countless ways. Yet its role as the frontline force in asylum exclusion has only grown.
An advertisement for the sale of Indian land by the US Department of the Interior, 1911.

A Legacy of Plunder

In its reexamination of narratives about the expropriation of Native land, Michael Witgen’s work changes how Native people are in the arc of American history.
A young girl tends the spinning machine at a cotton mill in North Carolina.
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The Forgotten History of the Child Labor Amendment

State-level rollbacks to child labor protections show the need for a constitutional amendment introduced 100 years ago.
Zdeněk Koubek.

A Forgotten Athlete, a Nazi Official, and the Origins of Sex Testing at the Olympics

In 1936, the Czech track star Zdeněk Koubek became world-famous after undergoing surgery so that he could live openly as a man.
Portrait photograph of Harriet Jacobs as an older woman

Incidents in the Life of Harriet Jacobs

A virtual tour of "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl."

The Unacknowledged Lesson: Earl Warren and the Japanese Relocation Controversy

Though best known for his dedication to civil rights as Chief Justice, Earl Warren was a key figure behind Japanese internment in California - and stood by it.
A drawing of a tent underneath stylized constellations depicting a growth chart, a graduation cap, and a dollar sign.

Summer Camp and Parenting Panics

Camps once sold a story about social improvement. Now we just can’t conceive of an unscheduled moment.
Historical illustration of the arraignment of Boss Tweed in courtroom (1872).
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A 19th Century Case That Holds a Lesson for the Trump Trials

Fairly applying the rule of law to powerful politicians provides the stability that enables the U.S. to thrive politically and economically.
Patsy Min, the first woman of color and the first Asian-American woman elected to Congress.

My Mom Fought For Title IX, but It Almost Didn’t Happen

When the personal and professional lives of Hawai'i Congresswoman Patsy Mink collided.
Map of Southeast DC showing the Anacostia River

The Anacostia And Residential Displacement In Postwar Southeast DC

The long-polluted Anacostia bisects the District’s Potomac waterfront, segregating the majority-Black Southeast from the rest of the capital city.
Judith Jones

The Woman Who Made America Take Cookbooks Seriously

Judith Jones edited culinary greats such as Julia Child and Edna Lewis—and identified the pleasure at the core of traditional “women’s work.”
An FBI insignia on an officer's jacket.

To Fix the FBI, Abolish It

A new study of the national security apparatus finds the existing Bureau incompatible with republican government.
Three immigrants with chained hands and feet ascending staircase to a plane to be deported.

America’s Medicalized Borders: Past, Present, and Possible Future

Undoing the politics of fear will require us to reckon with the legacies of nativism that divert our attention from the greatest threats to our health.
The large Wide Awake parade in lower Manhattan.

“Young Men for War”: The Wide Awakes and Lincoln’s 1860 Presidential Campaign

Wearing shiny black capes and practicing infantry drills had nothing to do with preparing for civil war.
The logout screen for "The Cave," the author's 1990s-era bulletin board system.

The Lost Civilization of Dial-Up Bulletin Board Systems

A former systems operator logs back in to the original computer-based social network.
Calvin Coolidge with Native American leaders.

A Century Ago, This Law Underscored the Promises and Pitfalls of Native American Citizenship

The 1924 Indian Citizenship Act sought to assimilate Native people into white society. But the legislation, signed by President Calvin Coolidge, fell short.
A photograph of a Pony Express employee riding a horse.
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Cowboys and Mailmen

Debunking myths about the Pony Express.
A team photograph of the Homestead Grays.

The Negro Leagues Are Officially Part of MLB History — With the Records to Prove It

The MLB incorporated the statistics of 2,300 Black athletes who played in the segregated Negro Leagues, making the Josh Gibson its new all-time batting leader.
Historical marker in Artillery Park.

Cast in Iron?

Rethinking our historical monuments.
Lillian E. Smith

“You Would Make Little Nazis of Them”: Lillian Smith, Jim Crow, and Nazi Germany

Smith understood why so many white Americans, especially white Southerners, struggled to accept that their society was not so far removed from Hitler’s Germany.
Donald Trump speaks with reporters on Thanksgiving, November 26th, 2020.

“Almost the Complete Opposite of Fascism”

A conversation with Corey Robin on the surprisingly weak presidency of Donald Trump.
A flower.

A Structural History of American Public Health Narratives

Rereading Priscilla Wald’s "Contagious" and Nancy Tomes’ "Gospel of Germs" amidst a 21st-century pandemic.
Map of school segregation in the U.S. in 2024.

This Map Lets You See How School Segregation Has Changed in Your Hometown

The new interactive tool accompanies a study of school enrollment data, which shows that segregation has worsened in recent decades.
Wong Gin Foo to Wong Kim (in Chinese), March 31, 1930.

Paper Sons in the Era of Immigration Restriction

Chinese immigration and the Immigration Act of 1924.
1882 newspaper headline following the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

The 100-Year-Old Racist Law that Broke America’s Immigration System

The legacy of the Immigration Act of 1924 and the launching of the Border Patrol, which inaugurated the most restrictive era of US immigration until our own.
Illustration of screens, electronics, and sound waves.

The Hidden History of Screen Readers

For decades, blind programmers have been creating the tools their community needs.
Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé.

Slouching Towards Tax Day

How did taxes become something we "do"?
A drawing of Noah Webster over drawings of the Webster dictionary, his notes, and a quill and ink.

Webster’s Dictionary 1828: Annotated

Noah Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language declared Americans free from the tyranny of British institutions and their vocabularies.
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