Beware of the Meeting Minutes
What gets lost when spoken conversations become part of the historical record?
Building a Library in Wartime Paris
Photos from the American Library in Paris reveal how librarians brought books to US troops during World War I.
Why Italian Fascists Loved Samurai
Japan offered Italian Fascists a powerful example of how ancient traditions could serve modern nationalism.
Ancient Rome’s Complicated Border
What did Hadrian’s Wall actually do? Its history challenges the idea that walls simply separate one side from another.
The Women Who Sold Books Door to Door
Three nineteenth-century memoirs reveal the risks and rewards of life on the road as a traveling bookseller.
How the Railways Killed a Medieval Law
Deodands put a price on objects that caused death, sometimes providing compensation to bereaved families.
The Women Written Out of Mining History
Women have mined for centuries, but laws barring them from the industry helped cement the idea that mining was men’s work.
What Came Before the American Suburb?
Hofstra University’s historic photographs capture Hempstead’s shops and streets before postwar development transformed Long Island.
The Nazi Car That Conquered the World
The Volkswagen Beetle helped symbolize Germany’s postwar rebirth, despite its origins in Hitler’s vision of a “people’s car.”
The Chinese-Only Schools of the Jim Crow South
A 1920s court battle over a Chinese American student exposed the complicated racial boundaries of school segregation.