Newsletter Features

Still Coming Out Under Fire

by Mollie Davis

Revisiting the lessons of Allan Bérubé’s 1990 history of queer solders during World War II.

Starting with a Question

by David Trowbridge

Meet Clio, a pedagogical tool that doubles as a travel app to get people hooked on learning history.

If the Slipper Doesn’t Fit

by Gabby Kiser

A scorched shoe is a crucial part of Zelda Fitzgerald’s modern mythology. But there’s no proof it existed.

Framing Frankenstein

by Emma Garman

Comparing the dueling versions of history found in Gothic fiction.

A Republic, if They Can Force It

by Timothy Messer-Kruse

In public schools around the country, conservatives are succeeding in their long effort to replace the word “democracy” with “constitutional republic.”

The Symbol of Failure in the Oval Office

by Stephen Dando-Collins

The long and winding tale behind the Resolute Desk.

Pelvic Obsessions

by Lynne Feeley

How the “obstetrical dilemma” and the dark history of pelvimetry met in the present.

Elevating the Few

by Elizabeth R. Varon

What JD Vance excludes from the history of the Civil War and immigration.

Scratching the Record

by Asheesh Kapur Siddique

On the long history of governments attempting to restrict access to documents about their inner workings.

War Stories Without the History

by Jake Pitre

Films about the Iraq War prize “truth-telling,” but don’t offer many insights about the war itself.

A Boat with a View

by Sam Esser

Why have generations of Londoners decided to make their lives on the city’s waterways?

Not Just the Dog-Eared Pages

by Anthony Aycock

Considering a novel as a whole, rather than as the sum of its parts, was an approach favored by mid-20th-century literary critics. It was also useful for fighting book bans.

German Radicals vs. the Slave Power

by Devin Thomas O’Shea

In Memoirs of a Nobody, Henry Boernstein chronicles the militant immigrant organizing that helped keep St. Louis out of the hands of the Confederacy.

So Ductile Is History in the Hands of Man!

by Madeline Grimm

The past and present of counterfactual history, from antiquity to the Napoleonic Wars to a few very active subreddits.

Solve for AI

by Bronwen Everill

What the history of the pocket calculator reveals about the future of AI in classrooms.

How to Succeed in Government Without Really Trying

by Camille Walsh

The long history of promising an “efficient” federal government. 

The Dangerous Afterlives of Lexington and Concord

by Eran Zelnik

How a myth about farmers taking on the British has fueled more than two centuries of exclusionary nationalism.

The Constitution Does Not Speak for Itself

by Eric Eisner and David B. Froomkin

In 1841, John Tyler said he was the president. The Constitution said he wasn’t. What happened next?

The Blood on the Keyboard

by Marina Manoukian

The history of ivory-topped piano keys and the invisible human suffering caused by our cultural commodities.

Whose Side Are College Administrators On?

by Lauren Lassabe Shepherd

There’s a long history of politicians targeting student protesters — and of campus leaders abetting those efforts.