The Lingering Damage of a Deadly Hurricane
April 6, 2016
Stephen Long— It can seem like a long wait for Spring to replace the browns and grays of the woods with tints of green. But this time of year has… READ MORE
Category: American History
Rethinking America’s Harsh Criminal Justice System
April 5, 2016
James Q. Whitman— Over the past few years there has been a growing sense of crisis in American criminal justice–a sense on both the right and the left that our… READ MORE
The Past, Present, and Future of America and the Islamic World
March 24, 2016
Tarek Osman— In 1801, the rulers of Tripoli, in today’s Libya, declared war on the US, after the republic had attacked North African corsairs who had repeatedly pirated American ships… READ MORE
Misunderstanding Lincoln: The Art of Wishful Thinking about Great Leaders
February 12, 2016
James West Davidson— We expect too much of our presidents. Especially at this season, when we honor the two chiefs universally acknowledged as our finest. That Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays… READ MORE
Love in the Time of Operation Wetback
February 9, 2016
Lori Flores— In the early years of the Cold War—driven by fears of border-infiltrating subversives and diseased immigrants—the U.S. government and media began obsessing about the nation’s “wetback problem.” Reports… READ MORE
Inventing the Christmas Tree
December 22, 2015
Bernd Brunner— Did candles on the Christmas tree start the blaze that destroyed the Castle Warthausen in Upper Swabia in 1621? Probably not, for many indications suggest that decorating trees… READ MORE
Billy the Kid Meets Ned Kelly
December 15, 2015
Robert M. Utley— Billy the Kid and Ned Kelly lived and died at roughly the same age and roughly the same time, the middle of the nineteenth century. Though they… READ MORE
Behind the Myth of Daniel Boone
December 1, 2015
Honor Sachs— In the early 1850s, artist George Caleb Bingham painted a now-iconic image of Daniel Boone leading a party of white families through the Cumberland Gap to Kentucky. In… READ MORE
American History in Under Three Minutes
November 12, 2015
Want to know more about American history but just don’t have the time? Here’s the history of the United States of America in under three minutes. Check out the video and… READ MORE
Byzantium and the Rights of Women
October 27, 2015
Jonathan Harris— Ancient Greece and Rome are often seen as the origin of much that underpins the political systems of modern democracies such as the United States, from separation of… READ MORE
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