As the United States prepared to enter World War I, the government created the first modern state propaganda office, the Committee on Public Information.

In June 1950, Senator Margaret Chase Smith criticized Joseph McCarthy's anticommunist campaigns. She was the first of his colleagues to challenge his Red Scare rhetoric.

Eugene Debs campaigned for both president and prison reform from a federal penitentiary. His critiques of the prison system still resonate.

Canadian-born George Chaffey was instrumental in bringing irrigation and the consequent development of the “agriburb” to California…and Australia…and Israel.

In 1980, The Grammys gave disco its own category, but the genre was already receding into invisibility.

Who needs black clothing to fight fascism when red, white, and blue will do quite nicely?

Like many actresses of her day, Laurette Luez was expected to be a beautiful siren in skimpy clothing who could be from almost anywhere—just not here.

The hedonism of American consumer culture is the result of deliberate efforts by mid-twentieth century marketing experts.

In the 19th century, most Americans weren't used to seeing maps of their communities. New forms of color lithography changed all that.

Historian Robin Veder explains that the way we associate female nurturing with gardens goes back to the way ideas about gender and work changed in the mid-nineteenth century.