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Human skull in a museum display case.

The Extremely Fast Peopling of the Americas

Two genetic studies show how the first Native Americans spread through their new continent with incredible speed.
Museum exhibit in Peru: a diorama with artifacts and mannequins representing paleoindian culture.

Three New DNA Studies Are Shaking Up the History of Humans in the Americas

Three new genetics studies present a fascinating, complex picture of how the first people in America spread across two continents.
Soldiers erecting a barbed wire fence at the U.S.-Mexico border.

That Beautiful Barbed Wire

The concertina wire Trump loves at the border has a long, troubling legacy in the West.

How History Class Divides Us

What if America's inability to agree on its shared history—and how to teach it—is a cause of our polarization and political dysfunction, rather than a symptom?
Exhibit

Native Pasts

This exhibit showcases the cultural, political, and environmental histories of American Indians, from ancient civilizations to contemporary activism.

In the Dismal Swamp

Though Donald Trump has made it into a catchphrase, he didn’t come up with the metaphor “drain the swamp.”

Agency, Order and Sport in the Age of Trump

Jim Thorpe, Jack Johnson, and the sporting middle ground.
partner

Religious Groups Are Fighting Trump to Keep Families Together

But they didn’t always oppose ripping kids from their parents.
American Indians.

When, How Did the First Americans Arrive? It’s Complicated.

The first Americans weren't one group of people; they arrived at different times, and likely by different methods.

Bias Training at Starbucks Is a Reminder That the History of Racism Is About Who Belongs Where

A central component of the history of racism is the intersection in which geography and race collide.
Salem witch trials

An Embarrassment of Witches

What's the real history behind Trump's 'witch hunt' tweets?

How Portraiture Gave Rise to the Glamour of Guns

American portraiture with its visual allure and pictorial storytelling made gun ownership desirable.

Paddling Down 'Disappointment River'

Revisiting the arduous path of 18th-century fur trader Alexander Mackenzie.

How Do We Explain This National Tragedy? This Trump?

On 400 Years of Tribalism, Genocide, Expulsion, and Imprisonment.
family Thanksgiving meal

The Dark and Divisive History of America’s Thanksgiving Hymn

How a beloved song with origins in 16th-century Europe captures both a holiday's spirit of unity and a country's legacy of exclusion.
Photo of Lake Oroville with low water levels, California, 2014.

The West Without Water

What can past droughts tell us about tomorrow?

Confronting the Legacy of the Civil War: The Forgotten Front

One thing united the warring factions of the civil war: the doctrine of white supremacy and violence against Indians.

An Icy Conquest

“We are starved!” cried the sixty skeletal members of the English colony of Jamestown as provisions arrived in 1610.

Activists Splatter Red Paint on Roosevelt Monument at American Museum of Natural History

The early-morning action is the latest in a series of protests demanding the statue’s removal.

How to Balance Competing Claims of Religious Freedom?

Peyote use has been defended with religious liberty arguments. So has Bible reading in public schools.

When the Idea of Home Was Key to American Identity

From log cabins to Gilded Age mansions, how you lived determined where you belonged.

The Racial Wealth Gap and the Problem of Historical Narration

The roots of inequality run a lot deeper than is often acknowledged.
Jackson statue outside the White House.

Trump's Jacksonian Moment

A new biography of Andrew Jackson recounts a bloody history, and reveals disturbing parallels between the 1830s and the Trump era.
Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau: A Radical for All Seasons

The surprising persistence of Henry David Thoreau.

Fresh Takes on the Declaration of Independence

A new look at the Declaration of Independence from 24 scholars across the country.

Bryan Stevenson Explains How It Feels To Grow Up Black Amid Confederate Monuments

"I think we have to increase our shame — and I don't think shame is a bad thing."
A Continental soldier in the Revolutionary War holding a tattered American flag and standing on chains.

We Could Have Been Canada

Was the American Revolution such a good idea?
Screenshot from "The Oregon Trail" computer game

The Forgotten History of 'The Oregon Trail,' As Told By Its Creators

You must always caulk the wagon. Never ford the river.
Artists' rendering of Cahokia mounds with buildings and people on them.

Finding North America’s Lost Medieval City

Cahokia was bigger than Paris — then it was completely abandoned. I went there to find out why.

The Real Story Behind "Johnny Appleseed"

Johnny Appleseed was based on a real person, John Chapman, who was eccentric enough without the legends.

Deep in the Swamps, Archaeologists Are Finding How Fugitive Slaves Kept Their Freedom

The Great Dismal Swamp was once a thriving refuge for runaways.

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