Genesis of the Modern American Right
During the Great Depression, financial elites translated European fascism into an American form that joined high capital with lower middle-class populism.
How a Rice Economy Toppled the Shogun
The co-existence of economies—one based on rice, the other on money—pushed the Tokugawa government toward financial misery and failure.
Richard Gregg: An American Pioneer of Nonviolence Remembered
Gregg was one of the first translators of Gandhi’s methods of nonviolent resistance for the West.
The Gift of the Grange
Originally a secret society, the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry today is an important health and education resource in rural communities.
L. M. Montgomery’s Plain Jane
Though not as well known as Anne of Green Gables, Montgomery's Jane of Lantern Hill also explores domesticity, freedom, and, yes, Prince Edward Island.
Remembering the Rumble in the Jungle
The 1974 Rumble in the Jungle was freighted with symbolism regarding American racial politics and the pan-African struggle in the context of the Cold War.
Do All Dogs Go to Heaven?
The belief that animals cross the “Rainbow Bridge” to an afterlife is relatively new and not part of any formal theology, yet many Americans embrace it.
The Naked Quakers
Today, the international feminist group FEMEN uses nudity as part of its protests. But appearing naked in public was also a tactic used by early dissenters.
The Long Civil Rights Movement
The “master narrative” of civil rights in the United States obscures the history of a more radical civil rights movement that stretches to the 1930s.