Newsletter Features

Indifferent to the Fate of Freedom Elsewhere

by Will Teague

Jimmy Carter is known for his defense of human rights worldwide. But in 1979, he threatened to deport thousands of Iranian student protesters.

Thaddeus Stevens and the Power of the Purse

by Cecily Zander

The Radical Republican oversaw federal spending at the dawn of Reconstruction. How did his support for Black equality affect his leadership in the House?

When Good Housekeeping Meant Getting Vaccinated Against Polio

by Katherine Churchill

The pages of 1950s lifestyle magazines offer a glimpse of a time when childhood vaccines were anything but controversial.

A Posthumous Romance of White Male Reunion

by Andrew Donnelly

The history of deriving political meaning from Abraham Lincoln’s sexuality.

What Is the Role of the Historian?

by Barbara Weinstein

Rethinking the job of history — and the American Historical Association — after the veto of the Gaza “scholasticide” resolution.

“At Any Future Time”

by Nat Reeve

In 1880, the daughter of a Welsh politician turned to fiction to expose perspectives missing from the official record, upending histories for generations to come.

The Meaning of the Mandate

by James A.S. Sunderland

Israelis and Palestinians both invoke their territory’s colonial past to support their national claims. What does that use of history obscure?

Knight Club

by Devin Thomas O’Shea

Were the Knights of the Golden Circle responsible for Lincoln’s assassination? No one knows, but far-right secret societies always draw power from speculation.

Secret Communions

by Emma Garman

 In Nabokov’s Pale Fire, the biggest drama takes place off the page, in the psychological interplay between author and reader.

For the Birds

by Santiago Flórez

In 1973, the Christmas Bird Count formed the basis for a press freedom case that centered on the impacts of DDT.

Nuggets of Condescension

by Bronwen Everill

By universalizing their own economic history, Western observers have used the past to portray African economic culture as backward and inadequate.

The Burned-Over District

by Stephen Pyne

The Northeast caught fire this fall, in a way that recalls its past. History has some lessons about how to manage the region’s fire seasons to come.

All the World’s America’s Stage — Even Ancient Rome

by Jessica Clarke

Gladiator and Gladiator II have little to do with the Roman past. But they have a great deal to do with the American present.

Letting the World Scream

by Sean T. Byrnes

The U.S., Nicaragua, and the International Court of Justice in the 1980s.

Keep Her Body from Pain and Her Mind from Worry

by Stephanie Gorton

A reading list tracing the history of the birth control movement through novels.

Ohio’s Little-Known Fascist Member of Congress

by Dana Frank

How a local prosecutor protected white supremacists and went on to a career in Washington, DC.

The Other Sherman’s March

by Richard R. John

How the younger brother of the famous general set out to destroy the scourge of monopoly power.

Regency Sex Ed

by Alexandra Vasti

How did women in 19th-century Europe learn about the birds and the bees?

Strange Political Bedfellows

by Mark McKibbin and Denver Brunsman

The origins of the Electoral College are entwined with slavery, but not in the way that recent accounts have suggested.

The Bowl Truth

by Emma Maggie Solberg

On Joan of Arc’s much-maligned and forgotten haircut.