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Strikers outside Walt Disney Studios in 1941.

Disney Animators Strike During WWII Changed the Company — and Hollywood

The 1941 strike, following the spectacular success of “Snow White,” stunned Walt Disney and rattled his now-storied company.
A portrait of Jackie Robinson in his Brooklyn Dodgers uniform, circa 1945.

Jackie Robinson Was More Than a Baseball Player

Jackie Robinson is popularly portrayed as the man who broke baseball’s color line by quietly enduring racist abuse. But that narrative is much too narrow.
Richard Nixon discusses Vietnam with National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger and Deputy National Security Advisor Al Haig at Camp David, 1972.
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The "Madman Theory" Was Quintessential Nixon

The rash ruse was central to Nixon’s strategy to fight the Cold War, and can also tell us a good deal about the famously elusive ex-president himself.
Map of John Proctor's 15 acres of property in Ipswich, MA

"The Crucible" and John and Elizabeth Proctor of Salem

It is worth digging a bit deeper into the family matters between John and Elizabeth.
Photograph of a woman pushing a shopping cart down a supermarket aisle.

The Secret Anti-Socialist History of Supermarkets

The emergence of the supermarket was used as a key piece of anti-communist propaganda early in the twentieth century against the alternative of grocery co-ops.
Curt Flood of the Saint Louis Cardinals, May 1966. Flood challenged Major League Baseball’s “reserve clause” barring players from changing teams.

A People’s History of Baseball

Communists fighting the color line. Baseball players resisting owners. Baseball's untold history of struggles against racial injustice and labor exploitation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, paying a visit to a hospital with wounded soldiers.

How Propaganda Became Entertaining

Ukraine’s wartime communications strategies have roots in World War II.
A class in Public School No. 8 on King Street, in New York City, discusses a book titled “We Love America,” brought to school by one of the pupils.

How Picking On Teachers Became an American Tradition

And why spying on the “bums” has been terrible for schools.
"Impeach Earl Warren" billboard by the John Birch Society.

Rise of the Far-Right Ultras

A new book shows just how porous the dividing line has been between the far right and mainstream conservatism.
Major General Smedley Butler addresses nearly 16,000 veteran bonus marchers camped in Washington, D.C., July 20, 1932. Smedley urged them to stay until the bonus has been paid. (AP Photo)

The Plot Against American Democracy That Isn't Taught in Schools

How the authors of the Depression-era “Business Plot” aimed to take power away from FDR and stop his “socialist” New Deal.
Actors James Stewart as George Bailey, Donna Reed as Mary Hatch, and Frank Faylen as Ernie in the 1946 film It’s a Wonderful Life. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection / Getty Images)

That Time the FBI Scrutinized “It's a Wonderful Life” for Communist Messaging

The film “deliberately maligned the upper class,” according to a report that didn’t like the portrayal of Mr. Potter as a bad guy.
Joseph McCarthy appearing on CBS television
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The Cold War on TV: Joseph McCarthy vs. Edward R. Murrow

In the heat of the Cold War, Joe McCarthy’s anti-communist crusade became a media sensation.
Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the Social Security Act with Frances Perkins behind him.

The Woman Who Helped a President Change America During His First 100 Days

Frances Perkins was the first female Cabinet secretary in U.S. history, paving the way for the record number of women serving in President Biden’s Cabinet.

The Enduring Lessons of a New Deal Writers Project

The case for a Federal Writers' Project 2.0.
A graphic for the Federal Theatre Project.

Can We Save American Theater by Reviving a Bold Idea from the 1930s?

The Federal Theatre Project put dramatic artists to work — and we could do it again.
Police wielding batons face a crowd of people.

'Fascist Storm Troopers': Racist Police Violence in 1940s America

In 1949, truncheon-wielding police officers descended on the racially integrated concert of singer Paul Robeson.

Joseph McCarthy and the Force of Political Falsehoods

McCarthy never sent a single “subversive” to jail, but, decades later, the spirit of his conspiracy-mongering endures.
Zora Neale Hurston in a bookstore with a copy of 'American Stuff'

How Did Artists Survive the First Great Depression?

What is the role of artists in a crisis?
A wanted poster that reads "Wanted by the people: murder, aggravated assault and battery, denying civil rights, perjury. Brinley Evans, Thomas Lyons."

Wanted: An End to Police Terror

The pursuit of justice has been defined by a rote binary of punished in a cage versus unpunished and free.
A group of men gather at a headquarters of the Communist Party USA following a protest demanding pay raise and an end to police brutality, US, circa 1920. Hirz / Archive Photos / Getty

How McCarthyism and the Red Scare Hurt the Black Freedom Struggle

Union activists linked the struggle for black equality in housing, employment, and at the ballot box, to the broader struggle against capitalist domination.
Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King.

Information the FBI Once Hoped Could Destroy Martin Luther King Jr. Has Been Declassified

Revealing these materials could be considered “Hoover’s revenge.”

Mayberry Machiavelli

The self-congratulatory legacies of ‘A Face in the Crowd.’

Trumpism Is the New McCarthyism

Just as as McCarthyism did decades ago, Trumpism conceals the Republican Party’s long-term program to dismantle the public sector.

Can Consumer Groups Be Radical?

Historian Lawrence Glickman looked at the consumer movements of the 1930s to find out.
Will Lee as Mr. Hooper

Spotlighting Communism & Hollywood in the Papers of Sesame Street’s Mr. Hooper

The actor who played the loveable grocer found his way to Sesame Street after being blacklisted during the Red Scare.
Salem witch trials

An Embarrassment of Witches

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

Hollywood Has Always Been Political. And it Hasn’t Always Been Liberal.

Conservatives have used celebrity glitz effectively, too.

A Homecoming for Murray Kempton

Looking at the reporter’s life through five houses in Baltimore.

Your Child Care Conundrum Is an Anti-Communist Plot

Red-baiters deserve at least part of the blame for the shortage of affordable, high-quality pre-K.

Dark Satirical Maps from a Depression-Era Anti-Fascist Magazine

The magazine's founders swore it was anti-communist, but that wasn't enough to convince skittish advertisers to stick with it.

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