W.E.B. Du Bois

A journalistic view of Martin Luther King Jr.'s life, work, and representation in American society.

Considering the suppressed legacy of Claude McKay’s two “lost” novels, “Amiable with Big Teeth” and “Romance in Marseille.”

A new book argues that American politics are defined by unfulfilled desire.

Sara Marcus’s recent book argues that from the Reconstruction to the AIDS era, a distinct aesthetic formed around defeat in the realm of politics.

David Hackett Fischer's book "African Founders" should be the starting point for any reflection on the enduring African ­influence on American national ideals.

From the 1920s-1940s, North, West, and South Philadelphia saw its Black population increase by 50-80% as white flight occurred.

The Black Woman’s Organizing Archive highlights work in the 19th and 20th centuries that benefitted Black women and American society as a whole.

First-person accounts of those scarred in many ways by the era’s violence suggest Reconstruction did not fail, it was overthrown by violence.

Jedediah Purdy's new book examines why the U.S. has continuously failed to qualify as a system defined by popular rule.

What we fight about when we fight about schools.

A new book argues that the American right emerged out of a backlash to multiracial democracy following the Civil War.

Firestone’s racist system of forced labor made Princeton one of the world’s foremost research universities.

From a bus line named Jim Crow to racial violence at public parks, racism shaped Philadelphia. Can we imagine a more equitable city?

Was abolition intended as a perpetuation of slavery by other means?

A review of "C. Vann Woodward: America’s Historian."

A new history of the Civil War and Reconstruction examines the ways in which Black Americans formed networks of self-reliance in their pursuit of emancipation.

During the Civil War, the Lincoln administration demonstrated that a progressive agenda and effective anti-inflationary measures could overlap.

Contrary to popular belief, the South has always been the key to defining the promise and limits of American democracy.

A new book traces how the writing of American history, from Reconstruction on, has falsified and illuminated our racial past.

The Supreme Court has watered down the policy’s core justification: justice.