Recently Published

Where Lies the Revolutionary Soldier?

by Allison C. Meier

As the U.S. celebrates its 250th birthday, historians and archaeologists are working to recover the names of those who fought for independence.

A Danger to Civilization

by Kim Phillips-Fein

Lothrop Stoddard believed that the concept of “natural equality” between people was a threat to America. In the 1920s, it was hardly a fringe idea.

Where Did the Myth of the Victorian Prude Come From?

by Catherine Phipps

The actions of a few elites shaped the way we remember an entire generation.

Young Washington Is Old History

by Denver Brunsman

A new movie relies on 19th century myths to portray the very British George Washington as a moralistic proto-American ready to pursue independence. 

The Sweets of Peace and Domestic Happiness

by Lauren Duval

Domestic life was vital to white Americans’ practice of independence after the Revolutionary War.

Declaring “Revolution”

by Robert A. Gross

Even after the fighting started, it took years before American Patriots started calling their cause a “revolution.”

How White Supremacists Responded to the Great Strike of 1877

by Devin Thomas O’Shea

St. Louis elites responded to a nationwide labor movement with a movement of their own.

Just Mad Mamas?

by Sam Worley

The women who founded the 1980s-era Parents Music Resource Center portrayed it as being beyond politics. Its actions, funding, and legacy suggest otherwise.

The Bicentennial Made American History Look Ridiculous

by Marc Stein

Many Americans felt the U.S. had failed to live up to its ideals on its 200th anniversary. They hoped it might improve by the Declaration’s next big celebration.

Birthright Citizenship Existed Before the Fourteenth Amendment

by Van Gosse

The idea that citizenship extends to everyone born on U.S. soil has precedents stretching back to the Founding.

The Bentham Brothers Build a Panopticon

by Henry Snow

Attracted by autocracy, two 18th-century Englishmen went to Russia and invented a method to consolidate control over workers.

Witness to a Revolution

by Marc Egnal

A historian thinks about how interpretations of the American Revolution’s causes have changed — and stayed the same — over the course of his career.

The Hard Work of Reckoning with Local History

by Claire Wolnisty and Felix Harcourt

How the residents of Sherman, Texas, came together to patch a hole in historical memory.

The Prehistory of the Slave Patrol

by Gautham Rao

As slave rebellions roiled the minds of 18th century Americans, enslavers looked to the state to enact a new type of policing.

Reading Playboy for the History

by Chris Halsted

A historian stumbles upon an article that provides a fascinating glimpse into how the world thought about witchcraft and sex in 1963.

A Different Kind of Historical Labor

by Jaclynn Ashly

One man has been steadily carving rock-hewn churches in Ethiopia for more than a decade. Scholars appreciate what his work teaches them about the past, while marveling at something completely new.

A Roosevelt Corollary for the World

by Sean T. Byrnes 

Donald Trump didn’t bring back the Monroe Doctrine. That was the work of the 26th president — and many of the presidents who succeeded him.

The Ballot Box Was the Way to Change Things

by Paul C. Rosier

Native Americans in the 1940s struggled simultaneously to secure their voting rights and protect the reservations that formed the basis for their disenfranchisement.

An Exculpatory Industry

by David Mayers

After World War II ended, the fascist propagandist and poet Ezra Pound returned to the U.S., where he was met with accusations of treason — and literary prizes.

What Has His Billion Dollars Made of Him?

by Olivia Paschal

Finding shades of Elon Musk in Upton Sinclair’s 1937 novel about Henry Ford.