Demystifying the American Story
John Smith Saved by Pocahontas by Alonzo Chappel, circa 1865 viaWiki Commons.Americans tell a tangled story of their past that has shaped the story itself, replete with inaccuracies, discrepancies and...
View ArticleAntietam's Bloody Intersection of War and Politics
Battle of Antietam--Army of the Potomac. Lithograph, 1888.On Wednesday, September 17, 1862, the bloodiest single-day battle in U.S. history was fought at Antietam Creek in Maryland, the first major...
View ArticleUnderstanding the Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King in 1964.In 1985, Dr. Clayborne Carson, a professor of history at Stanford University, received a phone call that changed his life. Coretta Scott King called and...
View ArticleCrafting the Rules for Hell
Francis Lieber, circa 1865. Credit: Library of Congress.American military and political leaders since the Revolutionary War have grappled with the problem of whether conduct in the hellish horror and...
View ArticlePicturing James Baldwin in Exile
1964 portrait of James Baldwin. All photos courtesy of Sedat Pakay.Being out . . . one is really not very far outof the United States . . . One sees it betterfrom a distance . . . from another...
View ArticleThe Afterlife of the British Empire
Imperial student at the London School of Economics in 1946. Credit: Imperial War Museum.Most historical scholarship on the decline and fall of the British Empire deals with the diplomatic and political...
View ArticleOn Creating a Groundbreaking Historical Novel
SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhold Heydrich in 1940. Credit: German Federal Archives.I just hope that, however bright and blindingthe veneer of fiction that covers this fabulous story,you will still be able...
View ArticleA Primer on America’s Forgotten "Nasty Little War"
In school, most of us learned a couple of facts about America’s evolving imperial ambitions and the Spanish-American War of 1898: the sinking of the battleship Maine in Cuba, the Roughrider charge up...
View ArticleMaking the Historical Documentary "Makers"
Professor Betsy West on the set of Makers. Credit: Columbia University School of Journalism.Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for...
View ArticleThe Chaotic and Bloody Aftermath of WWII in Europe
On May 8, 1945, Germany surrendered to the Allies and the Second World War in Europe ended officially. But in reality, the war continued in various guises for several years.British author and historian...
View ArticleEscaping Slavery in Washington Territory
When we think of the cruel legacy of slavery and the bloody Civil War that ended this vile institution, it’s unlikely that images of the verdant, sparsely populated Washington Territory soon come to...
View Article"Cities are the Living Embodiments of Past Decisions"
Children in wading pool at Cascade Playground, Seattle, 1939. All photos credit Seattle Museum of History and Industry.Stories about place are makeshift things.They are composed with the world’s...
View ArticleIra Katznelson: The Racist History of the New Deal
WPA Poster, 1935.When Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president in 1932, the United States faced uncertainty and imminent peril at home and abroad. The unemployment rate was 25 percent. Systems of...
View ArticleThe Brutal War on Vietnamese Civilians: Interview with Nick Turse
U.S. commanders wasted ammunition like millionaires and hoarded American lives like misers, and often treated Vietnamese lives as if they were worth nothing at all.--Nick Turse, Kill Anything That...
View ArticleHow Memory Works: Interview with Psychologist Daniel L. Schacter
Image viaShutterstock.Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today’s events.--Albert EinsteinMemory is the stuff of history. Historians rely on the memories of individuals as they seek and...
View ArticleFDR’s Alter Ego: Interview with Historian David L. Roll on Harry Hopkins
Harry Hopkins as secretary of commerce. Credit: Wiki Commons.During the war years Hopkins would become the only person in the U.S. government other than the president to thoroughly understand the...
View ArticleJim Downs: Civil War and Emancipation the "Greatest Biological Catastrophe...
Contraband during the Civil War. Credit: Wiki Commons.January 1, 2013 will mark the one hundred fiftieth anniversary of the effective date of the Emancipation Proclamation.We tend to think of the...
View ArticleHow Depression Went Mainstream: Interview with Dr. Edward Shorter
Image via Shutterstock.Every year, more and more Americans are treated for complaints of depression and often do not derive relief from treatment for their symptoms that may include anxiety, fatigue,...
View ArticleMarie Arana: Simon Bolivar the "Polar Opposite" of George Washington (INTERVIEW)
Credit: Wiki CommonsNot Alexander, not Hannibal, not even Julius Caesar had fought across such a vast, inhospitable terrain. Charlemagne’s victories would havehad to double to match Bolívar’s....
View ArticleMichael Fullilove: FDR the Greatest Statesman of the Twentieth Century...
FDR and Churchill onboard the HMS Prince of Wales during the Atlantic Charter Conference. At far left is Averell Harriman.To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This...
View ArticleThe Thrilling Untold Saga of Rescue Behind the Lines in World War II Albania...
British SOE officer Lieutenant Gavan Duffy being thanked for his role in the rescue of twenty-six American nurses and medics trapped in German-occupied Albania. Courtesy Cate Lineberry.November 8,...
View ArticleJames Dawes: Why Do People Commit Atrocities? (INTERVIEW)
A Japanese soldier poses with the head of a Chinese prisoner.The human capacity to injure other people is very great precisely because our capacity to imagine other people is very small.--Elizabeth...
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