Ice formations in a cave in Werfen, Austria, 1925

Underground Conquest: Cave Exploration and Nationalism

As cave exploration became more popular and speleology developed as an academic discipline, cave explorers were drawn into a problematic European nationalism.
People standing around a shopping cart with Trump's head inside

From Neoliberalism to Trumpism

The neoliberal politics that developed in the 1970s created financial instability and fragmented cultural markets, helping to pave the way for Trumpism.
Thomas Paine

Eighteenth-Century Takes on Basic Income

Universal basic income has gotten some serious twenty-first-century play, but the idea is hardly new.
Newspaper clipping about the Haymarket Riot from Harpers Weekly, 1887

Demonizing Immigrants in the 1880s

American newspapers portrayed members of immigrant groups as potential anarchists, linking the ideology to other anxieties and stereotypes about foreigners.
James R. Schlesinger, 1973

Politicizing Intelligence: Nixon’s Man at the CIA

James R. Schlesinger was only head of the CIA for six months, but he nevertheless ranks as the least popular director in the agency’s history.
Policia Nacional Civil de Guatemala, 2024

Police Misconduct and State Legitimacy in Central America

In countries such as Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, police corruption and misconduct have eroded public support for the political order.
Alexander Hamilton by John Trumbul, 1792

Hamilton’s Real Immigration Story

The popular musical poses Alexander Hamilton as a symbol of the value of immigrants brought to America, but over time, his party became increasingly xenophobic.
Activists during the Solidarity Day march in protest at President Reagan's economic and social policies in Washington DC, 1981.

Moral Economy and the Causes of Wage Inequality

How important are labor unions for combating wage inequality in the United States?
Source: https://archive.org/details/argentoratentiislapponia01scheffer/page/n323/mode/2up

Colonialism, Resistance, and Liquor

For both the Shawnee of North America and the Sámi of northern Europe, alcohol provided by colonizing powers was a symbolic and practical political issue.
Employees of Ottenheimer on strike for poor treatment

Labor Day: A Celebration of Working in America

Our best stories about workers' rights, labor unions, and international movements to improve working conditions, from the factory to the farm.