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Melting Glaciers Have Exposed Frozen Relics of World War I

Melting glaciers have allowed access to a mountain barracks used by Austro-Hungarian soldiers fighting the "White War" in the Italian Alps. 

Alamo Renovation Gets Stuck over Arguments about Slavery

Renovations to the Alamo have hit a predictable political snag, as conservative Texans insist that the site maintain its denial about the slaveholding of many of the Alamo's defenders or the pro-slavery ambitions of the Republic of Texas and threaten to block bills encouraging more historically informed exhibits. 

Warming is Clearly Visible in New US ‘Climate Normal’ Datasets

by Russ Schumacher and Becky Bolinger

Meteorologists and climatologists are already starting to incorporate these new normals into our work. But when you hear the term “normal,” keep in mind that it reflects a 30-year snapshot and represents a different reality today than it did 30, 60 or 100 years ago.

The Stealth Sticker Campaign to Expose New York’s History of Slavery

Slavers of New York is a guerilla public history project that seeks to remind New Yorkers of the ties to slavery of the families whose names are commemorated in the city's streets, parks, and other place names. 

‘One Oppressive Economy Begets Another’

Slavery and Jim Crow deprived Black communities in Louisiana of wealth and power, and enabled contemporary environmental racism. But slavery-era cemeteries are becoming part of efforts by those communities to fight back against polluters. 

The GOP’s ‘Critical Race Theory’ Obsession

by Adam Harris

Republicans have introduced state legislation to ban approaches to social studies education that include attention to racism. They claim to seek to protect students against a scourge they call "critical race theory" but in general have no idea what that term means. 

The Epic Journey to ‘The Underground Railroad’

Director Barry Jenkins struggled with the ethical implications of making entertainment out of the brutal events narrated in Colson Whitehead's novel "Underground Railroad." He discusses how he decided to go ahead with the miniseries adaptation anyway. 

We Found the Textbooks of Senators Who Oppose The 1619 Project and Suddenly Everything Makes Sense

"If The 1619 Project is an attempt to rewrite history, which version of history does the GOP fear is being altered?"

‘State Funeral’ Review: Saying Goodbye to Stalin

Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa’s documentary shows the aftermath of Josef Stalin's death, using footage shot at the time across the Soviet Union. 

The Secret Papers of Lee Atwater, Who Invented the Scurrilous Tactics That Trump Normalized

by Jane Mayer

"In many ways, his memoir suggests that Atwater’s tactics were a bridge between the old Republican Party of the Nixon era, when dirty tricks were considered a scandal, and the new Republican Party of Donald Trump, in which lies, racial fearmongering, and winning at any cost have become normalized."

Why Trump Still Has Millions of Americans in His Grip

Columnist Thomas Edsall surveys recent research about the past and future economic impact of automation and artificial intelligence and concludes that Democratic elites have a short time left to get ahead of cataclysmic changes in employment or else the Trump phenomenon will only be a preview of political rage. 

Clark Griffith Was Too Cheap To Integrate Baseball

Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith did not seize the opportunity to bring the Black superstars who played for the Homestead Grays in the nation's capital, or the District's enthusiastic Black baseball fans, into the Major League fold. Was bigotry or cheapness to blame? 

2,500 Years Ago, the Philosopher Anaxagoras Brought Science’s Spirit to Athens

2,500 years ago, Anaxagoras brought the Ionian philosophical outlook to Athens, where he helped to advance a naturalistic and empirical understanding of natural phenomena. 

Tensions Boil at UT-Austin over "The Eyes of Texas"

"Kendall Walker, a UT-Austin senior who is part of the student strike in the admissions office, said she thinks administrators wrongly assumed the issue would die down after the school formed a committee this past year to study the song’s origins."

Scholars For Reform Sends Open Letter to U.S. Senate Urging Filibuster Reform

Historians are among the scholars urging the Senate to reform the filibuster, arguing that a supermajority requirement to pass legislation is unsupported by the historical evidence of the framers' intentions and today distributes power in an undemocratic way. 

A New Deal, This Time for Everyone

The New Deal emphasized that American democracy must be healthy for its economy to enjoy legitimacy, and vice versa. It's time, says NYT editor Binyamin Appelbaum, to extend that commitment to the economic participation of women. 

Op-Ed: Why My Daughter Hates (Whitewashed) AP History

Anyone concerned about "woke" US History should take a close look at their teenagers' AP US History curriculum, which would not rile Trump's 1776 Commissioners, says columnist Noah Berlatsky.

An Artist on How He Survived the Chain Gang

Winfred Rembert spent seven years on a chain gang in Georgia for his civil rights activism. His art commemorates the experience. 

The Era of Big Government is Here

From a conservative writer's perspective, the conservative movement is at a low moment, without the ability to set the boundaries of policy debates as the Biden administration considers deficit spending and progressive reform.

An Unusual History: A Conversation Between Two Economists About the Economics Department at the University of Chicago

Arnold C. Harberger reflects on his service in the University of Chicago's economics department as it became a highly influential center of "free market" policymaking.