Recently Published

Fashion and Freedom from Suffrage to AOC

by Einav Rabinovitch-Fox

Fashion, freedom, and American independence have been and are still connected to ideas of women’s rights and equality.

Will SCOTUS Force Us All to Find Out How Polite an Armed Society Will Be?

by Jim Zirin

The Supreme Court's oral arguments in a challenge to New York State's gun laws suggest the court is willing to defy precedent and history and assume a power that the Constitution reserves to the people and states, forcing all communities to accept the concealed carrying of firearms.

Kyle Rittenhouse's Trial Will End in a Verdict. The Nation's Trial By Ordeal Won't

by Thomas Lecaque

"A trial by ordeal was not about miracles or superstition. It was, in effect, about the community making a decision on the innocence or guilt of the party, and then bringing it about." Kyle Rittenhouse's trial prompts an uncomfortable reckoning with the continuity of some medieval practices of justice.

Writing a Classic: Richard Tregaskis and "Guadalcanal Diary"

by Ray E. Boomhower

Combat reporter Richard Tregaskis's account of the August 1942 Marine invasion of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands passed military censors and became a popular sensation while offering the public an account of the difficulty and brutality of the Pacific war.

Citizen's Arrest Law at Center of Trial of Arbery's Killers Originated in Slavery

by Alan J. Singer

The three men on trial for killing Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia are counting on a jury to accept their claim that they were executing a citizen's arrest on Arbery. Georgia's citizen's arrest law, since repealed, shares in the racist history of similar laws across the nation. 

The Black Women Veterans of World War II Fought for More than the "Double V"

by Kaia Alderson

Kaia Alderson's new historical novel "Sisters in Arms" tells the story of the Black women in the World War II military whose service combined fights against fascism, racism and sexism.

Historically, Black Distrust of Police is About More than Acts of Violence

by Christopher Hayes

The Harlem rebellion against the NYPD in July 1964 was sparked by a police killing of a teenager (and a grand jury's refusal to indict him), but reflected the role of the police in maintaining a profoundly unequal social order that affected everyday life in Black neighborhoods, a situation that has changed little. 

Remember the Army's Role in the Pacific War: Important Then, Influential Afterward

by John C. McManus

During the second World War and after, the Marine Corps has received admiration and attention for its role in the Pacific, but the Army carried out a huge number of invasions and performed the logistics other services depended on. The Army's experiences in WWII also were foundational, for good and ill, for the next half-century of American war. 

How the Republicans Became the Anti-Abortion Party, and What it Means for the GOP Today

by Donne Levy

Conservative evangelicals rode the abortion issue to a place of power in the Republican coalition. Will their success help or harm the party now that abortion rights are more imperiled than at any time since 1973? 

Four Myths of Presidential Power

by Daniel Farber

History looms large in arguments about the Constitution these days. But there are widespread misunderstandings of what history tells us about presidential powers, from making war to being impeached. 

Flying the Confederate Battle Flag in the North is a Special Sort of Disgrace

by Daniel Koch

Upstate New York was once the most pro-Lincoln and anti-slavery part of the Union. The growing presence of Confederate symbols there insults the region's history and contributions paid in blood for freedom. 

Portrait of the Artist as a Businesswoman: Dorothea Lange’s Lost San Francisco Years

by Jasmin Darznik

Dorothea Lange's early work as a portrait photographer for San Francisco's elite seems at odds with her famous documentary work of the Depression. But that work sharpened her sense of aesthetics and of her own place in the world, foundations of her more famous later period.

How the Great War Helped the Drive for Prohibition

by Kathryn Smith

Hatred of Germans (and their beer) was essential to dry propaganda.

Why Is Pentagon Spending Rising When "We Can't Afford" Everything Else?

by Lawrence Wittner

The self-interest of politicians and defense contractors, not popular demand or military necessity, is driving a new US military buildup that continues unabated even as other vital national priorities go begging. 

The Women Who Won the Vietnam War

by Sherry Buchanan

Fifty years on, the history of the women who defeated a superpower, while celebrated in Vietnam, remains largely unrecognized and undocumented in our history of the war.

Scoring the Presidents on Integrity and Humanity in Dealing with Native American Nations

by Michael A. Genovese

Since George Washington, the President has had principal influence in government policy toward Native American nations. The nation's record is not generally a proud one but some presidents have dealt more honorably than others. 

We Need Poets as Much as Physicists and Artists as Much as Actuaries

by David P. Barash

We need the expertise of scientists and technologists to solve big problems, but we need artists to make people care enough about those problems to demand solutions.

West Virginia's Founding Politicians Understood Democracy Better than Today's

by Daniel W. Sunshine

The filibuster, as currently constructed, violates what West Virginia founder Waitman Willey described as “the great fundamental political right of the majority to rule.” West Virginia’s quest to improve their democracy offers lessons on how to heal our own.

The Trouble with Truth, Reconciliation, Peace and Friendship Treaties: Indigenous Land and Resource Rights Among the Mi’kmaq  

by Rachel Herrington

Honoring the history of the treaties is not just about the past but also about the present and future of indigenous Canadians. 

The Fantasy of Hispanic Heritage Month

by Frank P. Barajas

Conceived by a Congressman to honor the contributions of ethnic Mexicans to American society, Hispanic Heritage Month is based in a mythical Spanish past that obscures the indigenous history of the west and legitimates the succession of power from Iberian to Anglo elites.