History

When Her Neighbors Began Dying, the World Looked Away

When Her Neighbors Began Dying, the World Looked Away When Her Neighbors Began Dying, the World Looked Away

A new podcast takes us back to the early days of the HIV/AIDS crisis, when a mystery virus began spreading among New York’s Black and brown communities.

Jan 25, 2024 / Lizzy Ratner

Heather Cox Richardson and the Battle Over US History

Heather Cox Richardson and the Battle Over US History Heather Cox Richardson and the Battle Over US History

One interpretation presents the country as irredeemably tainted by its past. Another contends that the United States has also tended toward egalitarianism.

Jan 24, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Kim Phillips-Fein

Niels Vodder display wtih furniture designed by Finn Juhl, Cabinetmakers Guild Exhibition, 1949.

How Did Americans Come to Love “Mid-Century Modern”? How Did Americans Come to Love “Mid-Century Modern”?

Solving the riddle of America’s obsession with postwar design and furniture.

Jan 23, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Marianela D’Aprile

The Blue-Blood Families That Made Fortunes in the Opium Trade

The Blue-Blood Families That Made Fortunes in the Opium Trade The Blue-Blood Families That Made Fortunes in the Opium Trade

Long before the Sacklers appeared on the scene, families like the Astors, the Peabodys, and the Delanos cemented their upper-crust status through the global trade in opium.

Jan 23, 2024 / Feature / Amitav Ghosh

Palestinians in a destroyed residential area try to collect usable items under the rubble.

Israel’s Vietnam—and Ours Israel’s Vietnam—and Ours

Everything that Israel is doing to the people of Gaza—especially killing civilians through intensive aerial bombardment—was prefigured during the American “ground war” in Vietnam....

Jan 18, 2024 / Van Gosse

The author’s mother, 1927.

Christina Sharpe and the Art of Everyday Black Life Christina Sharpe and the Art of Everyday Black Life

In Ordinary Notes, Sharpe considers Black culture “in all of its shade and depth and glow.”

Dec 13, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Omari Weekes

The Dubious Feminism of the Natural Childbirth Movement

The Dubious Feminism of the Natural Childbirth Movement The Dubious Feminism of the Natural Childbirth Movement

Culture / Books & the Arts / December 12, 2023 More Than a Natural Function The politics of birth. The Dubious Feminism of the Natural Childbirth Movement Though it res…

Dec 12, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Moira Donegan

Bayard Rustin

Bayard Rustin Was No Hollywood Figurehead Bayard Rustin Was No Hollywood Figurehead

The new biopic about the socialist organizer stops at the March on Washington. What is it leaving out?

Dec 12, 2023 / Column / Adolph Reed Jr.

How Did Marxism Become Marxism?

How Did Marxism Become Marxism? How Did Marxism Become Marxism?

A new book examines a set of thinkers and activists who helped transform a set of radical ideas into a political tradition.

Dec 11, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Peter E. Gordon

Families walking in a New York park, 1952.

A New York Cult That Promised the End of the Nuclear Family A New York Cult That Promised the End of the Nuclear Family

Alexander Stille’s The Sullivanians documents the sordid history and fascinating intellectual roots of a psychotherapy group that proposed a utopian alternative to conventional fa...

Dec 7, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Callie Hitchcock

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