Roosevelt Family 1903

Alice Roosevelt: The Original First Kid

Alice Roosevelt set the tone for a more public first kid and laid the foundation for post-White-House activism like Chelsea Clinton’s.
black power salute olympics

The Uneasy History of Integrated Sports in America

The integration of collegiate and professional sports parallels the civil rights movement, but in important ways it was a whole different track.
Macron, Trudeau, Trump

How Charisma Makes Leaders Great

It's easy to write off charisma as a superficial quality. Yet, studies have proven that charisma is in fact an integral element of good leadership.
Children at US-Mexico border

Inventing the “Illegal Alien”

What's an illegal alien? The idea that the most important question about immigrants is their legal status is a relatively new one.
Huey Long

Huey Long: A Fiery Populist Who Wanted to Share the Wealth

Senator and Governor Huey Long of Louisiana was assassinated on September 10, 1935, but he packed many accomplishments into his short political career.
A dog on trial

When Societies Put Animals on Trial

Animal trials were of two kinds: (1) secular suits against individual creatures; and (2) ecclesiastic cases against groups of vermin.
Public Baths

Public Baths Were Meant to Uplift the Poor

In Progressive-Era New York, a now-forgotten trend of public bathhouses was introduced in order to cleanse the unwashed masses.
New River Gorge Bridge

Why There’s A West Virginia

West Virginia declared its independence from the secessionist state of Virginia in the middle of the Civil War and became the 35th state.
Unite the Right flags

White Supremacists and the Rhetoric of “Tyranny”

White supremacists have declared themselves in danger of losing essential rights. It's the kind of argument racists have been making for a long time.
Unite the Right rally

Is Doxxing the Right Way to Fight the “Alt-Right?”

In the aftermath of Charlottesville, people with similar names to white supremacists involved in the march were also caught in the crossfire.