The Revolutionary Beginnings of the Republican Party
Popular resistance to the Fugitive Slave Law and “Slave Power” helped forge a new electoral force.
How The West Was Photographed
Railroad photography helped sell an “empty” American West—carefully framing out the people already living there.
The Long History of High-Tech Border Policing
In the 1970s, sensors and computers turned the US–Mexico border into a testing ground for automated control.
Defying Slave Hunters in Boston’s Courts
A dramatic 1836 courtroom escape shows how Black women challenged slave hunters—and Boston’s elite.
When Profit Met Protest in Colonial New York
Economic self-interest shaped how New Yorkers responded to British taxes and imperial crackdowns.
Drought and Indigenous Migration in the American Midwest
In the seventeenth century, life at the prairie–forest edge was dynamic, unstable, and deeply shaped by climate.
The Racial Myth of the Basque Sheepherder
How ideas of ancient tradition shaped labor and immigration in the American West.
Tarring and Feathering, American Style
What began as a European folk practice became a distinctly American ritual of public punishment.
Contesting American Citizenship… in 1784
The Longchamps Affair shows how early Americans struggled to define citizenship amid conflicting laws and revolutionary values.
Unforgettable Fire: The U-2 Incident
Reports on the May 1960 downing of an American U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union offer a case study in Cold War posturing and misdirection.