Current Events that Relate to History
-
Book ReviewThe Scopes Trial and the Two Visions of US Democracy
A new history revisits “the Trial of the Century” and its legacy in contemporary politics.The Nation -
RetrievalCocaine: A Cultural History, From Medical Wonder to Illicit Drug
Once lauded as a wonder of the age, cocaine soon became the object of profound anxieties. What happened?Aeon -
Book ReviewThe Problems with Polls
Political polling’s greatest achievement is its complete co-opting of our understanding of public opinion, which we can no longer imagine without it.New York Review of Books -
Book ReviewAn Early Case For Reparations
Two new books tell the stories of people kidnapped and sold into slavery. One of them sued successfully.The New Republic -
EtymologyAmerica Is Not America Yet
On American history and the history of the word “America.”The Dial -
ExplainerThe Truth About Lithium Might Never Come Out
Longevity enthusiasts are microdosing a 19th-century cure-all. Are they onto something?The Atlantic -
exhibitPhotographic Record
From photojournalism to portraiture, the exhibit explores what photos have meant to their creators, subjects, and viewers.
From the HNN Archive
-
The Forebears of JD Vance and the New Right
Revisiting the Agrarian-Distributists and their fabrication of an American past. -
Overexposed
What happened to privacy when Americans gained easy access to cameras in the Gilded Age? -
An Early Case of Impostor Syndrome
Why were so many medieval books laden with self-deprecation? Blame genre conventions. -
Why Does American History Feel Like Ancient History to High School Students?
An argument for returning the recent past, and the history of modern conservatism, to classrooms. -
The Bowl Truth
On Joan of Arc’s much-maligned and forgotten haircut. -
No Place to Make a Vote of Thanks
On the long tradition of Black third-party activism.