First Ellis Island wooden structure

The Curious History of Ellis Island

Ellis Island celebrates its 125th anniversary as the federal immigration depot. From 1892-1954, more than 12 million immigrants passed through the island.
Bellamy Salute

The Pledge of Allegiance’s Creepy Past

Seventy-four years ago today, lawmakers passed an amendment to the U.S. Flag Code.
Marquis de Lafayette

Foreign Intervention… in the American Revolution

Foreign powers have been interfering in our politics since day one, when we welcomed it from France, Spain, and the Netherlands.
USS Arizona, Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor at 75

Seventy-five years ago on the morning of December 7th, 1941, the Japanese attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaii Territory.
Japanese American school children

Lessons From a Japanese Internment Camp

Trump ally Carl Higbie recently cited Japanese internment camps during World War II as a “precedent” for a proposed registry of Muslims in the U.S.
New York Journal 1898

To Fix Fake News, Look To Yellow Journalism

Fake news has plenty of precedents in the history of mass media, and particularly, in the history of American journalism.
Louisa Adams

Melania Trump Won’t Be America’s First Foreign-Born First Lady

Melania Trump, who reportedly will not immediately occupy the White House upon her husband’s inauguration, will not be your typical First Lady.
Margaret Fuller

How Early Feminist Writer Margaret Fuller’s Memoirs Were Rewritten

Margaret Fuller was one of the most-read Americans of the mid-nineteenth century, but then men started to edit her for posterity.
Couple at Niagara Falls

Falling for Niagara Falls

How did Niagara Falls become the Honeymoon Capital of the World?
Benjamin Franklin

How Benjamin Franklin’s Almanac Appealed to the Common Man

Why did Benjamin Franklin become an American patriot when he was such a loyal son of the Crown for so long?