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?
Smithsonian Institution Building

Why America Went Medieval

In the middle of the nineteenth century, upper-class America went gaga over a vision of the medieval. Carpenter’s Gothic ...
Polish refugees

Refugees Have Always Made Americans Nervous

What happens when a big stream of refugees enters an American community, bringing their foreign customs and values and taking scarce jobs?
Ford Model T, 1908

Henry Ford’s Anti-Semitism

Henry Ford's newspaper, the Dearborn Independent, published years of anti-Semitic articles, prompting Hitler to call him the "single great man."
Jail Cell

A Non-Punitive Response to Juvenile Crime

It wasn’t until recently that federal juvenile justice policy swung sharply toward prosecution and tough sentencing.
African American Civil War soldiers

Early Photographs of African American Soldiers at The National Museum of African American History and Culture

The Prickitt album in the NMAAC is a rare coincidence of names and photographs of Colored Troops fighting for the Union in the Civil War. 
Oklahoma panhandle

Why Oklahoma Has a Panhandle

The long, strange story of why Oklahoma has that panhandle.
Close Up Of Pregnant Woman Smoking Cigarette

Addicted Mothers: Substance Abusers or Child Abusers?

Are mothers with addictions abusive or victims? Our answer almost always involves race and class.