Current Events that Relate to History
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Book ExcerptThe Lesson of 1929
Debt is the almost singular through line behind every major financial crisis.The Atlantic -
Origin StoryThe Birth Pangs of the U.S. Navy
It was founded 250 years ago today—and, oddly, was promptly ordered to attack what is today its biggest base.The Bulwark -
AntecedentHistory Shows the Perils of Troops Policing American Cities
Sending Redcoats to American cities worked in the short term. But over time, it alienated even the colonists most loyal to the British.Made By History -
DebunkHow Eli Whitney Single-handedly Started the Civil War . . . and Why That’s Not True
The real Whitney story is less grand than the legend, but more interesting and, ultimately, more edifying.Commonplace -
NewsThe Canceled Civil War Assassin's Creed Game Was a Powder Keg Waiting to Explode
Ubisoft was reportedly working on a game set after the Civil War era, but canceled it due to politics and protagonist backlash.Polygon -
OverviewThe End of Asylum
The second Trump administration has undone the division between political and economic migrants. Did it make sense to separate them to begin with?New York Review of Books -
exhibitVoting Rights: A Retrospective
Voting, a right not initially enshrined in the Constitution, has been secured, revoked, and contested since the nation's founding era.
From the HNN Archive
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How to Succeed in Government Without Really Trying
The long history of promising an “efficient” federal government. -
If the Slipper Doesn’t Fit
A scorched shoe is a crucial part of Zelda Fitzgerald’s modern mythology. But there’s no proof it existed. -
Indifferent to the Fate of Freedom Elsewhere
Jimmy Carter is known for his defense of human rights worldwide. But in 1979, he threatened to deport thousands of Iranian student protesters. -
Elevating the Few
What JD Vance excludes from the history of the Civil War and immigration. -
Whose Side Are College Administrators On?
There’s a long history of politicians targeting student protesters — and of campus leaders abetting those efforts. -
Solve for AI
What the history of the pocket calculator reveals about the future of AI in classrooms. -
“At Any Future Time”
In 1880, the daughter of a Welsh politician turned to fiction to expose perspectives missing from the official record, upending histories for generations to come. -
Letting the World Scream
In 1984, the U.S. rejected the International Court of Justice’s jurisdiction, revealing its tendency to ignore international rules it sees as unfavorable — even when it helped write them. -
Scared Out of the Community
Between 1929 and 1939 approximately half a million Mexicans left the United States. Many of the departing families included American-born children to whom Mexico, not the United States, was the foreign land. -
When Good Housekeeping Meant Getting Vaccinated Against Polio
The pages of 1950s lifestyle magazines offer a glimpse of a time when childhood vaccines were anything but controversial.