Adam Hochschild

One Brief Shining Moment

Manisha Sinha’s history of Reconstruction sheds fresh light on the period that fleetingly opened a door to a different America.

Evolution in the Dock

In her new book, Brenda Wineapple brings to life one of the most inflamed chapters in the history of America’s culture wars: the Scopes trial of 1925.

Mildred Rutherford’s War

The “historian general” of the United Daughters of the Confederacy began the battle over the depiction of the Old South and slavery in US history textbooks that continues today.

Don’t Blame the Southerners

History Bright and Dark

Hillsdale College’s 1776 Curriculum and the documentary series based on the 1619 Project reflect deep divisions in how we recount our nation’s past.

The Cruelties of Empire

Whether they were labeled internal revolts, police actions, or states of emergency, colonial wars were especially brutal.

Who’s to Blame?

Three new books argue that disappearing jobs and widening inequality helped make possible Trump’s politics of resentment.

All-American Vigilantes

When the US entered World War I, right-wing organizations seized the opportunity to round up leftists, labor organizers, and suspected draft dodgers.

Another Great Yesterday

Family Values

American Devilry

Bang for the Buck

Congress, terrified of the NRA, has shielded manufacturers and dealers from any liability for firearms deaths, and has prevented the Centers for Disease Control from doing any studies of gun violence.

Ku Klux Klambakes

The Klan of the 1920s embodied the same racism as its predecessors, but served it up beneath a deceptively benign façade, in all-American patriotic colors.

When Dissent Became Treason

A period of unparalleled censorship, mass imprisonment, and anti-immigrant terror

Our Awful Prisons: How They Can Be Changed

Today we have 710 people per 100,000 in prison in the US, compared to fifty-eight in Finland.

The Trenches in Color

Because of the photography of their day, we tend to think of the world wars in black and white. Peter Walther’s The First World War in Colour feels like looking at a familiar scene through a different pair of eyeglasses.

Orwell: Homage to the ‘Homage’

Berkeley: What We Didn’t Know

Seth Rosenfeld’s ‘Subversives: The FBI’s War on Student Radicals, and Reagan’s Rise to Power’

Rape of the Congo

English Abolition: The Movie