Classroom of students with their teachers inside a Walapai school at Hackbury, Arizona, circa 1900

Life in Indigenous Boarding Schools

Survivors of schools in the US spoke with scholars about their experiences of cruelty, neglect, and cultural degradation.
Two Girl Scouts collecting magazines

When the Girl Scouts Were Accused of Being Commies

In response to right-wing attacks during the Cold War, the Girl Scouts changed their tone. Somewhat.
Leading Kentucky hemp farmer Joe "Daddy Burt" Burton with a harvested hemp plant.

The Return of Hemp

Even though it's made from cannabis plants, you can't get high on hemp. But it was classified as an illicit drug for nearly 50 years.
National Welfare Rights Organization activists marching in Washington, DC, May 1968.

How Poor Women Shaped the War on Poverty

Bridging the gap between policy and people was a central aim of the War on Poverty. Often, women were the ones who linked the government to the community.
An illustration of a revolver

Guns in America: Foundations and Key Concepts

This non-exhaustive list of readings on the role of guns in US history and society introduces the field as a subject of scholarly inquiry.
A press gang seizing a seaman

The Role of Naval Impressment in the American Revolution

Maritime workers who were basically kidnapped into the British Royal Navy were a key force in the War of Independence.
An illustration from the cover of America's Best Comics #11, November 1944

The Propaganda of World War II Comic Books 

A government-funded group called the Writers' War Board got writers and illustrators to portray the United States positively—and its enemies as evil.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.28033142

The Summer of Love Wasn’t All Peace and Hippies

Articles in the underground press capture what's missing from our romanticized memory of that fateful season.
James Baldwin

James Baldwin and the FBI

The author was monitored for his political activities, but also for being gay. The surveillance took a toll on him.
The cover of the July, 1964 issue of ONE Magazine

Patriotism and the LGBTQ+ Rights Movement

Charged with being "un-American" during the Cold War, activists appealed to American ideals in their quest for full citizenship.