History

Schools Rethink History Lessons Amid Anti-Asian Racism

New Jersey and Illinois are the first states to require teaching of Asian American history in schools

By Katie Reilly January 24, 2022

How Martin Luther King Jr. Changed His Mind About America

More than fifty years after his death, Martin Luther King Jr. remains a towering figure in the history of American civil rights. As with most influential thinkers, there is a certain amount of ambiguity in...

By Kermit Roosevelt III January 17, 2022

The Little-Known History of One Ship’s Battle Against the Slave Trade

By the time Henry Downes took command of the Black Joke, the ship had only been on the waters under that name for just a year. A former slave ship itself, the Black Joke was...

By A.E. Rooks January 14, 2022

I Searched for Answers About My Enslaved Ancestor

'Did slavery make home always somewhere else?'

By Imani Perry January 13, 2022

A New Report Finds That 45 States Are 'Failing' to Teach Students About the Period That Shaped Race Relations After the Civil War

In the aftermath of the insurrection a year ago at the U.S. Capitol, many leading historians drew parallels between the violence and the Reconstruction era, the period of political revolution directly following the American Civil...

By Olivia B. Waxman January 12, 2022

What the History of the Word "Insurrection" Says About Jan. 6

Ever since a mostly white mob stormed the U.S. Capitol after attending a Trump-headlined “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, 2021, there has been an ongoing and heated debate over whether to call the...

By Hawa Allan January 7, 2022

Louisiana Gov. Pardons Homer Plessy, 125 Years After SCOTUS ‘Separate But Equal’ Ruling

On Jan. 11, 1897, Homer Plessy pleaded guilty in a New Orleans district court for sitting in a whites-only train car, eight months after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Louisiana’s Separate Car Act and a...

By Olivia B. Waxman January 5, 2022

Watch: 4 Moments to Remember From 2021

From innovations that are shaping our future to a past that we're only just beginning to grapple with

By TIME Video December 30, 2021

Harry Reid, Understated Political Strategist, Dies

The former Senate Majority Leader knew his greatest strength was not soaring rhetoric but the inside game

By Molly Ball December 28, 2021

25 Years Later, the Murder of JonBenét Ramsey Remains Unsolved—and Issues It Highlighted Persist

On Dec. 26, 1996, 6-year-old child beauty pageant contestant JonBenét Ramsey was found dead in the basement of the family’s Boulder, Colo. home, along with a ransom note asking for $118,000. Autopsy results released in...

By Olivia B. Waxman December 23, 2021

What Ancient Laws Can Teach Us About Holding Autocrats to Account Today

The rule of law, democracy and human rights: these are the achievements of the modern nation state, or so we generally believe. Previous generations laid the ground with the Magna Carta, the U.S. Constitution, and...

By Fernanda Pirie December 23, 2021

Why It’s Time to Shed Some Light on History’s ‘Dark Ages’

Today, the Middle Ages are a sort of paradox; the myth of the “Dark Ages,” which survives quite ably in popular culture, allows space for it to be whatever the popular imagination wants. When people...

By Matthew Gabriele December 22, 2021

The Grim History of Christmas for Enslaved People in the Deep South

Amid contentious national pushback over how much of the full history of slavery in the United States should be taught in schools, the holiday season represents a particularly overlooked period. Around the time Christmas was...

By Olivia B. Waxman December 21, 2021

What History Reveals About Vaccine Hesitancy Today

The agonizingly slow upward creep of the U.S. COVID vaccination rate, coupled with the emergence of the Omicron variant, has observers speaking in tones of gloom. What is wrong with people who refuse to get...

By Jeanne Abrams December 17, 2021

The U.S. Almost Had Universal Childcare 50 Years Ago. The Same Attacks Might Kill It Today

Among the policy proposals included in the "Build Back Better" Act championed by the Biden administration and congressional Democrats is legislation the White House describes as "the largest investment in childcare in the nation's history."...

By Olivia B. Waxman December 9, 2021

3 Myths About Pearl Harbor, According to a Military Historian

Tuesday marks the 80th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, killing some 2,400 American servicemen and leading the U.S. to enter World War II. And 80 years later, myths...

By Olivia B. Waxman December 7, 2021

How World Leaders’ Reactions to Pearl Harbor Changed World War II

Within half an hour of the bombs falling on Hawaii, the phone rang in President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s study. When the navy secretary came on the line, his voice was quavering: “Mr. President, it looks...

By Brendan Simms December 7, 2021

What America Owes Black Veterans of World War II

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 1.2 million black servicemen and women were among the 16 million Americans who answered the call to defend our country and protect democracy abroad. The irony of fighting...

By Rep. Jim Clyburn December 7, 2021

America Learned the Wrong Lessons From Pearl Harbor

On Tuesday, December 7, 2021, we will remember Pearl Harbor, the 1941 Japanese attack on the U.S. naval base on Oahu, Hawaii, for the eightieth time. It is a ritual remembrance that has much to...

By Elizabeth D. Samet December 6, 2021

Bob Dole, Senate Legend Who Championed Compromise, Dies

Nothing in Dole’s life was easy, and that’s the way he wanted it

By Nancy Gibbs December 5, 2021

Why This Trans Boy Had More Rights a Century Ago Than Many Trans Kids Today

More than 100 years ago at Craigievar Castle in Scotland, Ewan Forbes’ mother realized her 6-year-old was a boy, despite it saying “female” on his birth certificate. Instead of sending him to boarding school like...

By Zoë Playdon December 2, 2021

The ‘First Thanksgiving’ Story Covers Up the All Too Real Violence in Early America

The 17th century is having a moment. In 2019, the world observed the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in Virginia. This year marks 400 years since English Pilgrims and Wampanoags...

By Peter C. Mancall November 24, 2021

How Tribe That Fed Pilgrims Spends Thanksgiving

It’s been 400 years since the meal known as the first Thanksgiving took place in Patuxet, the area now known as Plymouth, Massachusetts. Two prominent figures in the Plymouth Colony described it as a three-day...

By Olivia B. Waxman November 23, 2021

The History of Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamations

Presidential Thanksgiving proclamations are always a reflection of the office, the country and the stakes of the given cultural moment

By Denise Kiernan November 23, 2021

The 'Vindicating' Exoneration of 2 Men Convicted of Malcolm X Killing

On Nov. 18, Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam—convicted of the 1965 assassination of Malcolm X—were exonerated after serving more than 20 years in prison. When I saw the news I thought, wow, this is significant....

By Zaheer Ali November 19, 2021

How a Powhatan Tribal Chief Became One of Colonial America’s Greatest Military Leaders

During the late sixteenth century, a great American Indian chiefdom arose along the mid-Atlantic coast of North America. Named Tsenacommacah (densely inhabited land) by the peoples who lived along the rivers and shores of the...

By James Horn November 17, 2021

Librarians Grapple With Conservatives’ Latest Efforts to Ban Books

On Nov. 8, two members of a Virginia school board called for a book burning. During a board meeting that evening, the Spotsylvania County Public School Board unanimously ordered its school libraries to begin removing...

By Olivia B. Waxman November 15, 2021

What the True Story of Buffalo Bill Reveals About the Myth of the Wild West

Buffalo Bill is onstage engaged in fierce battle. He and his scouts are fighting a ferocious group of Cheyenne warriors. The audience holds its breath as the terrifying Cheyenne appear to be gaining the upper...

By Ijeoma Olou November 12, 2021

The Complex History Behind Belfast—and Its Echoes in Present-Day Northern Ireland

Kenneth Branagh's semi-autobiographical drama is set against the backdrop of escalating violence in late-1960s Northern Ireland

By Alison Garden November 11, 2021

Why Four Black Women Stood Up to the U.S. Army During WWII

Earlier this year, the women of the 6888th Postal Battalion Directory got a step closer to finally receiving the recognition they deserve. The Senate passed legislation to award the only all-Black Women’s Army Corps (WACs)...

By Kaia Alderson November 11, 2021

What Early Drafts of Slaughterhouse-Five Reveal About Kurt Vonnegut's Struggles

In the first chapter of Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut’s 1969 anti-war masterpiece about a hapless American soldier who becomes “unstuck in time,” the author indicates that he wrote more than five thousand pages by 1965. But...

By Tom Roston November 11, 2021

What the 1893 World's Fair Teaches Us About White Feminism Today

In November of 1890, a group of women called the Board of Lady Managers gathered in Chicago, a city that had been chosen as the site for the World’s Fair of 1893. The fairgrounds, an...

By Rafia Zakaria November 9, 2021

America's Last King Was No Crazy Tyrant

I loved Hamilton: An American Musical for its foot-tapping tunes and witty libretto, but it’s no more an accurate portrayal of history than Shakespeare’s Richard III or Macbeth. For the cruel prancing camp sadist portrayed...

By Andrew Roberts November 9, 2021

The Impact of Magic Johnson's HIV Disclosure, 30 Years On

For many watching Earvin “Magic” Johnson on television on Nov. 7, 1991, his words were tantamount to an announcement of his own death sentence. In a press conference hastily convened by Johnson and the Los...

By Francine Uenuma November 4, 2021

How Christians Eager to Unearth the Biblical Past Sparked Strife in Jerusalem

When an Israeli court ruled last month that Jews could pray on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem—if it was done quietly—the surprise decision seemed sure to spark yet another round of unrest in a city...

By Andrew Lawler November 3, 2021

The Real Black Cowboys That Inspired Netflix's The Harder They Fall

While the Netflix film is fictional, its characters take their names from real historical figures, like Nat Love and Stagecoach Mary. These are their stories.

By Andrew R. Chow November 3, 2021

Japan's Royal Women and Their History of Mental Stress

The former princess Mako Komuro is not the only Japanese royal to have experienced issues related to mental wellbeing

By Chad de Guzman November 3, 2021

Benjamin Franklin Regretted Not Inoculating Son From Smallpox

Parents of elementary school children received great news last week; the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children 5-11 years old. The Centers for Disease Control...

By Olivia B. Waxman November 2, 2021

The Long History of Vaccinating Kids in School

Now that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for kids aged 5 to 11, the Biden Administration has signaled that it will rely on a “trusted messenger” to get...

By Tara Law November 1, 2021

The Many Lives of H. Rap Brown

He sits in prison after decades of fighting for Black liberation, forgotten by the nation that never understood him

By Rembert Browne November 1, 2021

The 19th Century Advocate For 'Free Love' and Women's Liberty

When the roots of modern-day polyamory, sexual freedom, and "free love" are discussed, they're often traced back to the 1960s—the era of hippies, the movement for queer rights, and the “sexual revolution.” But in the...

By Olivia B. Waxman October 29, 2021

Why Fannie Lou Hamer’s Message on Economic Justice Endures Today

Addressing a crowd in Madison, Wisc., in 1971, civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer said she knew what it meant to be hungry. She recalled growing up in the 1920s and 1930s in a sharecropping...

By Keisha N. Blain October 27, 2021

In Lawsuit Against Texas Redistricting Maps, Plaintiffs See History Repeating

They argue that the new maps would depress Latino voter representation in the state

By Janell Ross October 22, 2021

Kiyoshi Kuromiya Helped AIDS Patients Get Life-Saving Info

About a twenty-minute walk from the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, in a city of sites dedicated to heroes of the American Revolution, there's a tribute to a hero of the city’s LGBTQ+ community at the...

By Olivia B. Waxman October 21, 2021

How Climate Chaos Helped Spark the French Revolution

Historians have long observed the links between the natural environment and the fate of civilization. Natural emergencies like droughts, floods and crop failure regularly plunge people into chaos. Long term changes in the earth’s climatic...

By Mike Duncan October 20, 2021

Why We Can't Ignore Our Dreams

On Mar. 14, 44 B.C.E., Julius Caesar dreamed of flying up through the clouds, until being warmly received by Jupiter. His wife, Calpurnia, however, had a nightmare in which he got stabbed. The following morning,...

By Sidarta Ribeiro October 18, 2021

The 1950s Wasn’t the Period of Conformity We Often Think of It As

Why Toni Morrison Books Are Frequent Targets of Book Bans

A Brief History of Cats in the White House

A Lesson of the Holocaust: One Person Can Make All the Difference

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