• History

    The Hub

    Here’s everything that’s making us happy this week.

     
    By Brittany Allen  April 18, 2025
    On Poetry

    On the Enduring Power of Charles Reznikoff’s Holocaust, 50 Years Later

    By Nick Ripatrazone  April 18, 2025
    Native American History

    How the Cherokee Nation Used Diplomacy to Resist Subordination

    By David Narrett  April 17, 2025
    Espionage

    On the Real-Life Story of Deep-Cover Russian Spies Living As American Families

    By Shaun Walker  April 16, 2025
    American West

    What a 19th-Century Photograph Reveals About Power, Privilege and Violence in the American West

    By Martha A. Sandweiss  April 16, 2025
    Detective Fiction

    “A Mystery Novel Like No Other Before.” On Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time

    By Sarah Weinman  April 16, 2025
    Book Marks: What the Critics Are Saying
    Christianity

    Religion Meets the Swinging Sixties: How Western Christianity Confronted a Decade of Change

    By Diarmaid MacCulloch  April 16, 2025
    Comedy

    “A Source of Amyuzmint.” On the Use of Bad Spelling in Early American Comedy

    By Gabe Henry  April 16, 2025
    Folk Music

    The Timeless, Timely Folk Novel: On Writing Fiction Influenced by Folk Songs

    By Seán Hewitt  April 15, 2025
    Social Justice

    Copaganda on the News: On the Crucial Stories the Media Ignores

    Alec Karakatsanis Calls Out the News Cycle’s Focus on Petty Theft Rather than Its Root Causes

    By Alec Karakatsanis  April 18, 2025
    Empowerment

    Beyond Institutions: Why Black Empowerment Must Bridge the Opportunity Gap

    By Andre M. Perry  April 14, 2025
    The Lives of Women

    Coming Undone: Telling the Stories of Women Who Burn It All Down

    By Claire Hoffman  April 14, 2025
    African American Literature

    The Incendiary Feeling of Freedom: On Phillis Wheatley Peters and the Poetry of Survival

    By Tiana Clark  April 14, 2025
    American History

    Abolitionists and Confederates: On the Complex History of American Jews During the Civil War

    Richard Kreitner Explores the Position of a Once-Enslaved People in a Society Marked by Slavery

    By Richard Kreitner  April 11, 2025
    The Hub

    Goodnight, Moon is going postal. To celebrate, check out these children’s book stamps.

    By Brittany Allen  April 10, 2025
    The Classics

    On the Opaque Origins and Tumultuous Ancient History of Homer’s Odyssey

    By Daniel Mendelsohn  April 9, 2025
    Friendships

    On the 40-Year Friendship of Toni Morrison and Fran Lebowitz

    By Priya Vulchi  April 9, 2025
    On Grief

    “The Past is Another Country.” On Fate, Grief and the Slow Disintegration of a Family in Zimbabwe

    Peter Godwin Explores the Known and Unknown Sides of Those Closest To Him

    By Peter Godwin  April 7, 2025
    The Holocaust

    Our Freedom is Fragile: Lessons From the Jewish Children Who Fled Nazi Germany

    By Pamela Newton  April 3, 2025
    The Natural World

    The Forest For the Trees: How “Backyard Biology” Can Lead to Scientific Breakthroughs

    By Thor Hanson  April 3, 2025
    Ancient History

    What We Can Learn About Death and the Afterlife From the Earliest Humans

    By Robert Garland  April 3, 2025
    Aging

    Suddenly Old, Suddenly the Other: On the Unfamiliar World of Aging

    Douglas J. Penick Considers Time, Transitions, and Classical Music

    By Douglas J. Penick  April 3, 2025
    American Literature

    American Literature’s White Whale: Why the “Great American Novel” is Still Worth Pursuing

    By Ed Simon  April 2, 2025
    Mythology

    The Beast Inside: What the Myth of the Minotaur Reveals About Human Nature

    By Natalie Lawrence  April 2, 2025
    The Hub

    The Trump administration is coming for American history. Here’s what we can do to fight back.

    By Brittany Allen  April 14, 2025
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