Excerpts

Sixty-plus years ago, the white leaders of Newport News, Virginia, seized the core of a thriving Black community to build a college.

Finding space for cars has remade the built world. A new history uncovers just how much our lives revolve around parking.

In the late 1800s, advice writers targeting white, middle-class Americans began encouraging men to become more engaged in the emotional lives of their households.

After the Whig president’s shocking death, his vice president and successor proved to be a Whig by expedience only

Critics of the Supreme Court think it has lost its claim to legitimacy. But proposals for reforming it must strike a balance with preserving its independence.

The basketball great is now better known for his tie-dye and enthusiastic sports commentary, but in the 1970s, he was a polarizing anti-government activist.

Without the now-obscure land investment affair, Georgia might have been a "super state."

When journalist Dorothy Tucker first learned about the 10 Million Names genealogical project, it helped amplify memories of long car journeys to “Down South."

The forgotten figure symbolized the hopes—and myths—of the early United States.

All along the South Carolina coast, developers looking to profit on vacation getaways and new homes are targeting land owned by descendants of enslaved people.

While we may never know the full truth, we owe it to those harmed and killed to illuminate their stories.

Urban socialists blazed a path toward social democracy. Leftists who want to reclaim this tradition face a whole new set of obstacles.

Advanced Placement courses are no recipe for igniting the intellect beyond high school. They’re a recipe for extinguishing it.

What a whaling captain’s logbook can teach us about sperm whales and our oceans.

Seeking rural solitude, urban Southern Californians ventured into the Mojave Desert, armed with pickaxes and dreams but facing harsh landscapes and red tape.

On the Road with Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and John Burroughs.

Golden prairies of a Minnesota state park also hold the burial sites of Dakota people who died as the U.S. failed to fulfill treaties with Native Americans.

Fifty years after the military coup that brought down Salvador Allende and installed Pinochet as dicator, top secret US documents still need to be declassified.

"The Day After Trinity" and "The Strangest Dream" evacuate the mythical tropes of the tortured genius biopic that Hollywood loves to rehearse.

Songwriting credits since 1958, broken down by gender.

Many of the reasons for strikes now mirror the motives that workers had for walking off the job in decades past.

Decades of Supreme Court decisions have converted qualified immunity from a commonsense rule into a powerful doctrine that deprives people injured by police misconduct of recourse.

Malcolm Ross is unknown today. That’s too bad. This son of privilege has much to teach us about labor and civic leadership.

James Garfield is known primarily for being assassinated. But his life reveals the character of nineteenth-century America.

Miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo face few protections in the global rush for metals in energy transition—a toxic legacy from mining nuclear weapons.

The founding and funding of conservative media on college campuses in the 1960s.

Ron DeSantis wants to retrofit history to conform to conservative ideology.

David Grann’s sweeping history of crimes against the Osage people.

For decades, Philadelphia has struggled with poverty and gun violence. Social uplift organizations of the past have demonstrated that racial equity is the key.

The biopic starring Helen Mirren shies away from the moral implications of Golda Meir’s decisions.

To fully understand the deep roots of today’s white Christian nationalism, we need to go back at least to 1493.

A short history of hand-colored photos during the Civil War era.

A new book explores the Army’s struggles with race relations in the decades of civil rights and Black Power.

The actor and martial arts star also wanted to be regarded as a poet-philosopher.

The “syringe tides”—waves of used hypodermic needles, washing up on land—terrified beachgoers of the late 1980s. Their disturbing lesson was ignored.

In 2026, we will celebrate the nation’s semiquincentennial, and also the fifth anniversary of the January 6th uprising.

On Spiro Agnew's lasting legacy.

Yelling about schools gets people riled up. The outcome can be unpredictable.

Huey P. Newton has been mythologized and maligned since his murder 34 years ago. His family and friends offer an intimate look inside his life and mind.

Police have been using the snapshots in criminal investigations since the advent of commercial photography

A Filipino woman died after coming to the U.S. to be put on display at the 1904 World's Fair. A Smithsonian anthropologist likely took part of her brain.

The study of poverty has flourished in recent decades. Why haven’t the lives of the poor improved?

In the years before Roe v. Wade, maternity homes in the United States housed residents who, upon giving birth, often relinquished their children for adoption.

A prolific, meticulous artist, McCay created characters and storyscapes that inspired generations of cartoonists and animators.

Researchers are rediscovering the forgotten legacy of a pioneering Black scientist who conducted trailblazing research on the cognitive traits of animals.

Last month, descendants of copper miners and history enthusiasts alike gathered for the 117th annual Central Mine reunion service

Rethinking the twentieth century.

The free market used to be touted as the cure for all our problems; now it’s taken to be the cause of them.

The 1989 cult classic ushered in a darker, weirder, more experimental era for teen movies.

In his latest book, Michael Kazin argues that the Democrats have long sought to build a “moral capitalism.” Have they ever succeeded?