The Year of Peril
April 19, 2021
Tracy Campbell— As 1943 dawned, the relentless fear that had gripped the nation since Pearl Harbor had somewhat lessened, and although most understood that the most difficult days of the… READ MORE
Category: American History
Police Before “The Police”
March 16, 2021
Sal Nicolazzo— In his Lectures on Justice, Police, Revenue, and Arms—the precursor to The Wealth of Nations—Adam Smith defines “the objects of police” as “the cheapness of commodities, public security and… READ MORE
Inside an Impounded Brooklyn Slave Ship with Walt Whitman
March 2, 2021
John Harris— The United States played a crucial role in the slave trade after 1850, when Brazil effectively sealed its shores to the traffic. Forced to rethink their operations, a… READ MORE
Looking to the Past to Find Ourselves
February 15, 2021
Michael Hattem– For a few decades, American history has played a prominent role in the most current iteration of culture wars in the United States. We saw this most recently… READ MORE
Civil Liberties in a Pandemic?
February 8, 2021
John Fabian Witt— While the courts took a middle path, public discourse around contagion remained subject to confusion and hysteria. Sometimes epidemics produced panicked overreach by the state, as in… READ MORE
The Meeting at White Marsh, 1789
February 3, 2021
William G. Thomas III— The poplars swayed high above Edward Queen and Charles Mahoney on that May morning. The summer heat crawled up from the Patuxent River, summoned from its… READ MORE
Two Consequences of Tough-On-Crime
January 21, 2021
Russell Crandall— A hallmark of the tough-on-crime era was the militarization of domestic law enforcement, especially on the anti drug front. Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams were first formed… READ MORE
Lakota America
January 4, 2021
Pekka Hamalainen— In 1776 two nations were born in North America. One was conceived in Philadelphia, the other in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and they were separated by… READ MORE
More than Meets the Eye: American Furniture at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
December 29, 2020
Alexandra Alevizatos Kirtley— After several years of research and writing, the first publication on the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s revered collection of American furniture dating from 1650 to 1840 has… READ MORE
Four Approaches to Conspiracy Theories
November 18, 2020
Stephen Bates— Conspiracy theories are much in the news, most notably the QAnon tangle of claims about the Deep State, child-trafficking, and cannibalism. Although the details change, allegations of secret… READ MORE
Recent Posts
-
We All Lose When We Fail Our Most Vulnerable Neighbors
- The Caliphate or Supreme Imamate with Simon A. Wood
- Nature and Artifice: A Portrait of Vincent van Gogh Not Seen Before
- Red Sky at Morning at Twenty: A Reflection
- From 9/11 to 9/11: The Widening of the Atlantic
- Independence Day Reading List 2024
- A Conversation with Trudier Harris on Bigger: A Literary Life