Filter by:

Filter by published date

Viewing 151–176 of 176 results. Go to first page
A graphic depicting covid-19 with a plane on top of it.

Emerging Diseases, Re-Emerging Histories

The diseases that prove best suited to global expansion are those that best exploit humans' global networks and behaviors in a given age.

Who Remembers the Panic of 1819?

We haven’t built many memorials to panics, recessions, or depressions, but maybe we should.

When the Seattle General Strike and the 1918 Flu Collided

The first major general strike in the United States coincided with the last major pandemic. Here’s the full story.
Sketch of colonial fur traders and Indigenous people in a canoe.

The Untold Story of the Hudson’s Bay Company

A look back at the early years of the 350-year-old institution that once claimed a vast portion of the globe.
High risk, high return investments in whaling ships, such as the New Bedford, Massachusetts, provided a model for modern venture capital. Courtesy New Bedford Whaling Museum.

Venture Capital Builds The Modern World

The American method of high-risk, potentially high-reward investments has fueled innovation from New England whaling ventures to Silicon Valley start-ups.
partner

Citibank: Exploiting the Past, Condemning the Future

In 2011, Citigroup published a 300-page 200th anniversary commemoration Celebrating the Past, Defining the Future. Is it a past to celebrate?

Docking Stations

A conversation with historian Peter Cole about his recent book, Dockworker Power.

The Strange Career of ‘National Security’

When the phrase became a national obsession, it turned everything from trade rules to dating apps into a potential threat.
Bank of England.

The Invention of Money

In three centuries, the heresies of two bankers became the basis of our modern economy.
Gold coins and jewelry spilling out of a chest.

The Pirate as Conquistador: Plunder and Politics in the Making of the British Empire

As the British Empire's power expanded, piracy became criminalized.
A page of Trump's first proposed budget, focusing on International Programs (2017).
partner

The New Arms Race: American Businesses vs. China’s Government Money

How we outsourced foreign aid to private companies.
partner

Trump's National Security Justification for Tariffs is Not as Strange as it Sounds

Our concept of national security is so broad it can encompass virtually anything.

Colonialism Did Not Just Create Slavery: It Changed Geology

Researchers suggest effects of the Colonial Era can be detected in rocks or even air.
China and Korea shaking hands, and a dove and a missile.

Important Moments in U.S.-Korean Relations

From the first exchange of gunfire in 1865 to the 1953 ceasefire, and beyond.
Map of the arms trade.

The Roots of America’s Gun Culture

How 18th-century British arms sales, the slave trade, and the Revolutionary War contributed to the mess we have today.
Original printing of the Articles of Confederation in a glass display case at Williams College in 2007.

‘We Have Not a Government’: The US Before the Constitution

What the political crisis in post-revolutionary America has to teach us about our own time.

The Revival of John Quincy Adams

The sixth president, long derided as a hapless elitist, is suddenly relevant again 250 years after his birth.
Donald Trump and Theresa May
partner

Protectionism 100 Years ago Helped Ignite a World War. Could it Happen Again?

Abandoning free trade doesn't just hurt the economy. It threatens peace and stability across the globe.
Political cartoon showing the effects of the recession, including idle ships, drunk men, and a woman and child begging a banker for mercy.

The Panic of 1837

A primary source set and teaching guide created by educators.

The History of the United States’ First Refugee Crisis

Fleeing the Haitian revolution, whites and free blacks were viewed with suspicion by American slaveholders, including Thomas Jefferson.
Students and teacher talking about homework at Islamic School in Seattle.
partner

Islam and the U.S.

What does it mean to be Muslim in America? And how has the practice of Islam in the U.S. changed over time?
Engraving of Hawaiian high chief Ka‘iana

When Hawaii Was Ruled by Shark-Like Gods

19th century Hawai‘i attracted traders, entrepreneurs, and capitalists, who displaced, a flourishing and elaborate culture.
Roof spotter looking at New York City skyline
partner

Route Cause

On the 1870s skirmish between John D. Rockefeller and the upstart competitors who built the country’s first long-distance oil pipeline.
Man reading paper about gas rationing in front of a sign that reads "sorry no gasoline."
partner

1973 – The Year That Changed Everything

The story of the oil shocks of 1973 and how they continue to shape the world we live in today.
Magellan’s ship, the Victoria, in the Pacific Ocean on the map of the New World.

The Land Divided, The World United

Building the Panama Canal.
The World Trade Center.

The World Trade Center: Before, During, and After

A biography of the towers that became "bane as well as boon to lower Manhattan."

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person