Roundup

The Salem Witch Trials (infographic)

by Emerson "Tad" Baker

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692-1693 were by far the largest and most lethal outbreak of witchcraft hysteria in American history.

How Hong Kong's business elite have thwarted democracy for 150 years

by Philip Bowring

Philip Bowring says a look back over the past 150 years reveals how Hong Kong's business elite have continually used their power to frustrate the public's democratic ambitions

Teddy Roosevelt Was a Real Independent. Today's Versions Are Poseurs.

by Michael Kazin

The label Independent today is often a synonym for vapid.

How an African slave helped Boston fight smallpox

by Ted Widmer

Centuries before Ebola, Cotton Mather faced down another global epidemic with a health tactic from abroad.

The Invisible History of the Human Race

by David Dobbs

How DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Futures

Ebola, HIV, and the Politics of Contagion: What gay history teaches us

by Jim Downs

The threat of Ebola provides a peek into the politics of contagion.

Ethnic Identity Is Often A Choice,; One That Can Be Politically Profitable

by Victor Davis Hansen

Not only are racial bumper stickers sometimes cynical, but they are also hopelessly inexact.

Paranoia Crept into American Political Life a Long Time Ago

by Lewis Beale

Fifty Years ago, “The Paranoid Style of American Politics” changed how we think about modern conservatism. The American polity has been dealing with it ever since.

Selective Memory and the CIA

by Max Boot

"Talk about politicized intelligence. At least that’s what it would be called if the president in office were a Republican."

Fear of immigrants spreading disease is nothing new

by Jonathan Zimmerman

"But a blanket prohibition on travel from West Africa? That’s prejudice, plain and simple."

Roundup Top 10!

This week's broad sampling of opinion pieces found on the Internet, as selected by the editors of HNN.

Who's most well-off in the United States? (Map)

Is your state among the most prosperous? Click here to find out. 

Historical Memory and the Rosenbergs

by Jonathan S. Tobin

"The willingness of liberals to carry on with the pretense that Greenglass’s evidence was somehow worse than the Rosenberg’s’ treason remains insufferable."

What Does 'Islamophobia' Actually Mean?

by Tanya Basu

A brief history of a provocative word

The Igorrote Tribe Traveled the World for Show And Made These Two Men Rich

by Claire Prentice

Truman Hunt and Richard Schneidewind were locked in a fierce competition, but by the end, the tribespeople were left poor, hungry and yearning for home

What Happened to the Roosevelts?

by Rob Goodman

What the Bushes and the Clintons can learn from a fallen political dynasty.

UCLA’s New Cover Girl: Guess Which Far Leftist It Is!

by Ron Radosh

"This banner adds to the shadow that today is cast over so many of our major universities."

A history of government discrimination gave us Ferguson

by Richard Rothstein

Long before the shooting of Michael Brown, official racial-isolation policies primed Ferguson for this summer’s events.

ISIS’s Looting Campaign

by David Kohn

The archaeological devastation is not about ideology, but income.

Why Britain needs a constitutional convention

by Timothy Garton

"We have been waiting a long time for this constitutional moment."