family — Bunk History

William H. Taft with his extended family in 1918.

Review: ‘The Tafts’ by George W. Liebmann

A new book celebrates an American political dynasty dedicated to public service. Why have they been forgotten?

by Antony Lentin via History Today on November 25, 2024

An American flag themed tapestry.

Do American Family Names Make Sense?

What's in a name? According to the "Dictionary of American Family Names," it depends.

by Peter McClure via OUPblog on April 12, 2024

Patti Davis sits for a portrait with her pug, Lily, at her home.

For Years, the Reagans' Daughter Regretted Some Things She Wrote. Now She's at Peace.

Patti Davis has spent a lifetime chronicling her life with parents Ronald and Nancy Reagan. In a new book, 'Dear Mom and Dad,' she reckons with them as people.

by Mary McNamara via Los Angeles Times on February 6, 2024

Margie Burkhart

The Enduring Family Trauma Behind ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’

The murders of her Osage relatives for their oil wealth still reverberate in the life of Margie Burkhart, granddaughter of a central character in the new movie.

by Sydney Trent via Retropolis on October 20, 2023

Afeni Shakur at a session of the Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention, organized by the Black Panther Party, in Philadelphia, September 1970.

How the Shakurs Became One of America’s Most Influential Families

In a white supremacist society, where Black people are still fighting for freedom, the Black family offers protection and, at times, a space for resistance.

by Keisha N. Blain via The New Republic on August 3, 2023

Portrait of William Costin.

Did Martha Washington Have a Black Grandson?

Likely the child of Martha's son from her first marriage, William Costin used his position to advocate for D.C.'s free Black community.

by Cassandra A. Good via Smithsonian on June 5, 2023

Bobby Seal and Huey Newton standig in front of a Black Panther Party sign

How Huey P. Newton’s Early Intellectual Life Led Him To Activism

The role of family in Huey P. Newton's educational journey.

by Mark Whitaker via Literary Hub on February 13, 2023

A Union soldier stands with African Americans on a plantation, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, 1862.

Military Service and Black Families During the Civil War

One war, in one city, Philadelphia, and the fate of the men, women, and children left behind as collateral damage in the wake of conflict.

by Barbara A. Gannon via Black Perspectives on January 11, 2023

A Brief History of One of the Most Powerful Families in New York City: The Morgenthaus

An excerpt from a new book on the so-called "Jewish Kennedys."

by Andrew Meier via Literary Hub on October 17, 2022

African American women with signs promoting voter registration, 1956

Things Ain’t Always Gone Be This Way

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers on how her mother overcame voter suppression and became an activist in her community.

by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers via Kenyon Review on December 1, 2020

A portrait of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow with white hair and a full beard.

A Beautiful Ending

On dying and heaven in the time of Longfellow.

by Nicholas A. Basbanes via Humanities on June 15, 2020

Slavery and the Family Tree

How do you make a family tree when you may not know your family history?

by Whitney Nell Stewart via Black Perspectives on May 15, 2019

Photo of a father and young child looking at each other

What It Means to Be a 'Good' Father in America Has Changed. Here's How.

"I think the key change for the invention of the modern father is in the 1920s," says historian Robert L. Griswold.

by Olivia B. Waxman via TIME on June 15, 2018

Lonesome for Our Home

Zora Neale Hurston’s long-lost oral history with one of the last survivors of the Atlantic slave trade.

by Elias Rodriques via The Nation on May 23, 2018

The Hidden History of Anna Murray Douglass

Although she’s often overshadowed by her husband, Anna made his work possible.

by Lorraine Boissoneault via Smithsonian on March 5, 2018

The Ledger

In researching his family's past, the author learns of his ancestors' efforts to thrive despite the confines of racial oppression.

by Lawrence Jackson via n+1 on June 14, 2012

Joseph Jefferson, Palm Beach, Florida, circa 1904

Who Was the Most Famous of All?

The tale of the long forgotten Joseph Jefferson, who revolutionized character acting in 19th century American theater.

by Robert Gottlieb via New York Review of Books on October 22, 2009

An older man standing outside a restaurant.

Aging Out

Many of us do not go gentle into that good night.

by Anne Matthews via The American Scholar on December 5, 2024

A 1905 photo of a Cincinnati, Ohio, home that once functioned as a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Abolitionism Shows How One Person Can Help Spark a Movement

Rankin's 'Letters on American Slavery' set out a moral argument for abolition that resonated across the nation.

by Caleb Franz via Made By History on December 2, 2024

A drawing of the inside of a printing mill, depicting workers printing art.

The Midnight World

Glenn Fleishman’s history of the comic strip as a technological artifact vividly restores the world of newspaper printing—gamboge, Zip-A-Tone, flongs, and all.

by Michael Chabon via New York Review of Books on November 28, 2024

Collage of Matilda Gage and good and bad witches from "The Wizard of Oz" and "Wicked."

The Feminist Who Inspired the Witches of Oz

The story of suffragist Matilda Gage, the woman behind the curtain whose life story captivated her son-in-law L. Frank Baum as he wrote his classic novel.

by Evan I. Schwartz via Smithsonian on November 18, 2024

Portrait of Ena and Betty Wertheimer by John Singer Sargent, 1901.

Friend of the Family

Jean Strouse explores the relationship between the Anglo-Jewish Wertheimers and John Singer Sargent, who painted twelve portraits of them.

by Ruth Bernard Yeazell via New York Review of Books on October 31, 2024

A group of children spinning on a merry-go-round.

The Parenting Panic

Contrary to both far right and mainstream center-left, there’s no epidemic of chosen childlessness.

by Aaron Bady via Boston Review on October 30, 2024

State Correctional Institution at Camp Hill Administration Building, with a restricted entrance sign in front of its doors.

The Porous Prison

How incarcerated people have become separated from American society.

by Charlotte Rosen, Reiko Hillyer via Public Books on October 3, 2024

Black American soldiers pose with German women and mixed race children.

A Black Woman’s Activism in Postwar (West) Germany

Why one journalist worked with Black American families to adopt mixed-race German children after World War II.

by Silke Hackenesch via Black Perspectives on September 18, 2024

Men stand around as John Quincy Adams dies in bed.

John Quincy Adams's America

Historians may never speak of an “Age of Adams” to rival Andrew Jackson, but Randall Woods’s new biography reveals the sixth president’s greatness.

by Daniel N. Gullotta via Law & Liberty on September 6, 2024

C. G. Garrett photographed with five Black contemporaries outside of a building in Columbia, South Carolina.

Riding With Mr. Washington

How my great-grandfather invented himself at the end of Reconstruction.

by David Nicholson via The American Scholar on August 22, 2024

Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. in a flight suit with an airplane.

Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Was a Family Star Until Tragedy Struck in 1944

Eighty years ago this month, the Kennedy who might have been president was killed on a secret mission over England.

by Michael E. Ruane via Retropolis on August 1, 2024

George Washington portrait with the outline of a father and child cut out.

Being a ‘Childless’ President Was Once Seen as a Virtue

Ask George Washington.

by Cassandra A. Good via The Atlantic on July 31, 2024

Herman Melville; illustration by Maya Chessman.

Siding with Ahab

Can we appreciate Herman Melville’s work without attributing to it schemes for the uplift of modern man?

by Christopher Benfey via New York Review of Books on July 25, 2024

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