Settlement cookbook

The Cooking Classes that Americanized Jewish Immigrants

At the end of the 19th century, a Wisconsin woman named Elizabeth “Lizzie” Black Kander tried to help immigrants assimilate, through the food they ate.
Sad lovers couple after pregnancy test result

Are Our Environmental Policies Making Us Broke, Hungry, and Infertile?

Forestry wages fall, hunger is increases, and infertility may be growing because pesticide residue clings to food. Time to overhaul environmental policy?
Children at US-Mexico border

Inventing the “Illegal Alien”

What's an illegal alien? The idea that the most important question about immigrants is their legal status is a relatively new one.
Nogales Arizona Mexico

The Case for Open Borders

Is a world without borders an idea so crazy it just might work? Scholars weigh in on how open borders might solve the world's immigration problem.
Saco and Vanzetti

Is There a Place in Public History for Sacco and Vanzetti?

How Boston has marked the controversial trial and alleged crimes of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Italian immigrants executed for murder.
charlottesville syllabus: history of hate in america

Charlottesville Syllabus: Readings on the History of Hate in America

The history of racism and ethnic hate in America is long and deep. What are the cultural, economic, and political currents that led us here?
Mexican-American studies protest

How Arizona Banned Mexican-American Studies

An Arizona court is hearing a case that could roll back a 2010 ban on teaching Mexican-American studies in the state.
Noah Webster painting

How Noah Webster Invented the Word Immigration

Noah Webster, author of An American Dictionary of the English Language published in 1828, invented the word "immigration."
Citizenship ceremony

Should Citizenship Be For Sale?

Should you be able to buy your way to citizenship? Economic research reveals some merits behind the idea, but others see classism and discrimination.
Private Prisons

The Problem With Privatizing Prisons

If private prisons make their profit from criminal society, its goes against business sense to reduce criminality.