Menu
Idea

personal history

269
View on Map
Filter by:

Filter by published date

A man tacks applications to Princeton University on a bulletin board
partner

The Rise of the College Application Essay

The essay component of American college applications has a long history, but its purpose has changed over time.
by Sarah Stoller via Made by History on July 11, 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
Washed-out photo of a man, and redacted book cover of "Born Free and Equal."

Seeing Japanese American Heritage Through Ansel Adams’s Lens

A photographer excavates personal history through reconstruction of Adams's World War II photographs of Japanese Americans.
by Joseph Maida via The Nation on November 29, 2023
Collage of plantation logbooks superimposed over photos of enslaved people.

A Racist Scientist Commissioned Photos of Enslaved People. One Descendant Wants to Reclaim Them.

There's no clear system in place to repatriate remains of captive Africans or objects associated with them.
by Jennifer Berry Hawes via ProPublica on October 9, 2023
Book cover of "Before the Movement" by Dylan C. Penningroth

What the Conventional Narrative Gets Wrong About the Civil Rights Movement

A new book illuminates how Black Americans used property ownership, common law and other methods to assert their rights.
by Matt Delmont via Washington Post on September 26, 2023
Shemp Howard and Tiny Brauer in "Fling in the Ring"

The House Next Door to the Stooges

A visit to the old neighborhood.
by Robin Hemley via Turning Life into Fiction on May 17, 2023
A photo of three young girls smiling seated around a table with dolls next to them.

Reading Disability History Back into American Girl

The author's personal history with the dolls, and an argument for American Girl to make a new doll with a disability.
by Marissa Spear via Nursing Clio on November 1, 2022
A high school yearbook photo of Elizabeth Prewitt.

I Never Saw the System

As a white teenager in Charlotte, Elizabeth Prewitt saw mandatory school busing as a personal annoyance. Going to an integrated high school changed that.
by Elizabeth Prewitt via Admissions Projects on October 1, 2022
The author, as a young girl, standing in front of a wall.

As If I Wasn’t There: Writing from a Child’s Memory

The author confronts the daunting task of writing about her childhood memory, both as a memoirist and a historian.
by Martha Hodes via American Historical Review on September 19, 2022
Black and white photo of Ishmael Reed as a child in Willert Park Courts, 1943.

The Buffalo I Knew

The city is at a crossroads. Which path will it take?
by Ishmael Reed via New York Review of Books on July 9, 2022
Actor John Turturro and his grandmother.

My Grandmother’s Botched Abortion Transformed Three Generations

Her death was listed as ‘manic depressive psychosis,’ and it sent five of her six children to orphanages.
by John Turturro via Washington Post on July 8, 2022
A 1907 photograph of immigrants arriving at Ellis Island.

What I Don’t Know

At the heart of my family tree are only questions and mysteries.
by Lynne Sharon Schwartz via The American Scholar on April 14, 2022
"We are the Spirit Rappers," 2016, By Amy Friend.

The Weight of Family History

It’s never been easier to piece together a family tree. But what if it brings uncomfortable facts to light?
by Colin Dickey via The New Republic on March 21, 2022
A large federal style brick house, the William Paca House in Annapolis, Md.

I Searched for Answers About My Enslaved Ancestor. I Found Questions About America

'Did slavery make home always somewhere else?'
by Imani Perry via Made By History on January 13, 2022
Dual circular images of fire, representing seeing fire through the eye holes of a klan hood

Sins of the Fathers

In Life of a Klansman, Edward Ball’s white supremacist great-great-grandfather becomes a case study in the enduring legacy of slavery.
by Colin Grant via New York Review of Books on October 28, 2021
Rembrandt van Rijn self-portrait

Autobiography with Scholarly Trimmings

Even as they tell others’ stories, historians often write about their own lives.
by Zachary M. Schrag via Perspectives on History on July 13, 2021
Collage of a photograph of a boy over a photo of Castro and his entourage.

My Brother’s Keeper

Early in the Cuban Revolution, my mother made a consequential decision.
by Ada Ferrer via The New Yorker on February 18, 2021
Depiction of a woman in a tree, looking down with a thoughtful expression.

Roots to Fruits

Meditations on when you think you found the people who owned your people via DNA test.
by Mariah-Rose Marie M via The Nib on February 1, 2021
The author at a Feminary Collective meeting with co-members Eleanor Holland (left) and Helen Langa (center) in Durham. Photo by Elena Freedom.

The Queer South: Where The Past is Not Past, and The Future is Now

Minnie Bruce Pratt shares her own story as a lesbian within the South, and the activism that occurred and the activism still ongoing.
by Minnie Bruce Pratt via Scalawag on January 27, 2020

The Magic of Estate Sales

These collections of everyday objects are clues to strangers’ daily lives.
by Ann Friedman via Curbed on May 1, 2019

Being Morally Serious About the Supreme Court

What sorts of youthful transgressions are forgivable, and which are disqualifying, for which jobs?
by Nils Gilman via The American Interest on October 3, 2018
Young boy holding the Communist sickle and hammer, in black and white

Revisions in Red

A scholar wrestles with the legacy of her grandfather, onetime leader of America’s Communist Party.
by Laura Browder via The Chronicle of Higher Education on November 19, 2012
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
Fistfight in Peekskill, NY, 1949.

75 Years Ago, the KKK and Anti-communists Teamed Up to Violently Stop a Folk Concert in NY

Racist mobs attacked a 1949 concert in Peekskill, NY, raising anti-communist fervor and showing how hatred could gain legitimacy amid today’s political turmoil.
by Nina Silber via The Conversation on August 20, 2024
Communist Party USA members march for unemployed relief during the Great Depression in San Francisco.

Bring American Communists Out of the Shadows — and Closets

In the 20th century, American Communists were seen as an enemy within. In reality, they were ordinary people with complex lives that deserve to be chronicled.
by David Bacon via Jacobin on August 15, 2024
Portrait of a Black woman; artist unknown, American, circa 1830–1835.

In Search of the Real Hannah Crafts

"The Bondwoman’s Narrative" is the first novel by a Black woman to describe slavery from the inside. Recently, scholars have discovered her true identity.
by Brenda Wineapple via New York Review of Books on July 25, 2024
A French soldier bandaging a wounded Vietnamese comrade.

How the Vietnam War Came Between Two Friends and Diplomats

Bill Trueheart's battles with friend and fellow Foreign Service officer Fritz Nolting illustrate the American tragedy in Southeast Asia.
by Timothy Noah via Washington Monthly on June 24, 2024
A photograph of the author's brother, Steve, playing pool.

Imperfecta

Her brother’s disease leads a writer to challenge how we conceive of human abnormality in the emerging era of gene editing.
by Pamela Haag via The American Scholar on June 20, 2024
A Black female welder circa 1930s-1940s.

A Sweeping History of the Black Working Class

By focusing on the Black working class and its long history, Blair LM Kelley’s book, "Black Folk," helps tell the larger story of American democracy.
by Robert Greene II via The Nation on June 12, 2024
Misery and Fortune of Women (1930).

The Lost Abortion Plot

Power and choice in the 1930s novel.
by Julia Cooke via The Point on June 11, 2024
View More
30 of
269

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person

brought to you by
© Bunk History