Wild timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) on train tacks at sunrise, Florida

Actual American Rattlesnakes

Historians are recovering the overlooked history of North America’s Crotalus horridus, the timber rattlesnake.
President Truman addresses the closing session of the 38th annual conference of the NAACP at Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C., 1947

Why Did Truman Support Civil Rights?

Truman’s domestic agenda attempted to solve the problem of Black American oppression while undermining the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.
Plaque of Marbury v. Madison at SCOTUS Building

Marbury v. Madison: Annotated

Justice John Marshall’s ruling on Marbury v. Madison gave the courts the right to declare acts and laws of the legislative and executive branches unconstitutional.
A view of the New United States embassy in London, England. Circa 1950.

Whatever Happened to London’s “Little America”?

Since the time of John Adams, the first US Ambassador to the Court of St. James, Grosvenor Square has been the locus of the American government in Britain.
Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, ca. 1900-1915

Take Me Out to the Class Game: Social Stratification in the Stadium

The private boxes for the privileged few in today’s baseball stadiums are nothing new.
Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi of Iran sits and talks with American president John F. Kennedy, 1963

The Shah, Our Man in Tehran?

Playing up the threat of the communist incursions, the Shah of Iran gained more and more support—financial and political—from the United States.
Mohammad Mosaddeq, 1951

US–Iran Relations: 1953

What really happened in Iran back in the day, and what did the United States have to do with it?
Wild Horses at Play by George Catlin, between 1834 and 1837

The Rise and Fall of the Equestrian Cultures of the Plains

The introduction of the horse to North America by the Spanish transformed the lives of the Indigenous peoples of the Plains in decidedly mixed ways.
Men in striped pants removing dirt or gravel from a ditch, 1911, Panama Canal Zone

Exporting the Convict Clause: Slaves of the State in the Canal Zone

The criminalization of Blackness enabled by the Thirteenth Amendment brought chain gangs to the construction projects of the Panama Canal Zone.
Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama (2nd R) stands with Congressman Jerrold Nadler at a dedication ceremony officially designating the Stonewall Inn as a national monument to gay rights on June 27, 2016 in New York City.

Stonewall National Monument Declaration: Annotated

In June 2016, President Obama proclaimed the first LGBTQ+ national monument in the United States at the site of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in New York City.