• History

    The Hub

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

    Meet the non-profit fighting to protect the archive from "truth and sanity."

     
    By Brittany Allen  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

    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
    Book Marks: What the Critics Are Saying
    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

    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
    Empowerment

    Beyond Institutions: Why Black Empowerment Must Bridge the Opportunity Gap

    Andre M. Perry on the Ongoing Struggle For Racial, Social and Economic Justice in America

    By Andre M. Perry  April 14, 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

    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

    Natalie Lawrence Explores Our Enduring Obsession With Monsters, Internal and External

    By Natalie Lawrence  April 2, 2025
    New in Nonfiction

    From the Nightmares of the Third Reich to Elon Musk: 10 Nonfiction Books to Read in April

    By Literary Hub  March 31, 2025
    Radio

    On the Episode That Changed Ira Glass’s This American Life Forever

    By Steve Oney  March 31, 2025
    Retellings

    Poet, Mystic, Warrior, Visionary: Reimagining the Life and Art of an Aztec Ruler Lost in Myth

    By Ilan Stavans  March 27, 2025
    Dissidents

    A Brief History of America’s Campaign Against Dissident Newsmaking

    Aaron Boehmer on Underground Presses and State Violence

    By Aaron Boehmer  March 26, 2025
    Pandemics

    How the Industrialization and Militarism of the Early 20th Century Helped Spread the Spanish Influenza

    By Edna Bonhomme  March 24, 2025
    The Hub

    A new study traces the history of Black American literary groups.

    By Brittany Allen  March 21, 2025
    The Cold War

    Between Existential Fear and Isolationist Exhaustion: The United States on the Eve of the Cold War

    By Clay Risen  March 21, 2025
    Historical Fiction

    What the Work of Literary Production Reveals About the Resonance of History

    Stuart Nadler: “The work is everything, and the work is heartbreaking.”

    By Stuart Nadler  March 19, 2025
    Education

    How Delayed Desegregation Deprived Black Children of Their Right to Education

    By Noliwe Rooks  March 19, 2025
    New York City

    On the Colonial Power Struggle That Would Give Birth to the City of New York

    By Russell Shorto  March 18, 2025
    The Natural World

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

    By Thor Hanson  April 3, 2025
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