History

In 1972, they owned the skies.

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Hearts of Darkness

The incoherence of the British Empire

Was there ever really a British Empire? Cartographers certainly wanted you to think so. Starting in the late eighteenth century, British mapmakers colored territories ruled by the British in red or more often in pink (for contrast with the typeface). At the height of Britain’s global power, imperial pink tinted a quarter of the map. Suspended on the walls of schoolrooms around the empire, the map became one of the most memorable icons of British dominance.

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The Forgotten President

Woodrow Wilson was as important as FDR or LBJ. Why aren't we celebrating his 100th anniversary?

The first liberal Democratic president took office exactly 100 years ago this spring. So why aren’t contemporary liberals bestowing the same praise on Woodrow Wilson as they lavish on Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson? Granted, if he were running today, Woodrow Wilson wouldn’t win a single Democratic primary and would no doubt be heckled out of the race. Raised in the South, he smiled on Jim Crow and did not object when two of his cabinet appointees re-segregated their departments.

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Why America Never Had Universal Child Care

In 1971, a national day-care bill almost became law. Therein lies a story.

Following The New Republic's recent blockbuster day-care story, a historian describes a 1971 effort to create a national child-care program–and the backlash that ensued. 

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Before Stonewall

In celebrating the most famous gay-rights skirmish, we slight the battles that came before

In celebrating the most famous gay-rights skirmish, we slight the battles that came before

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Agit-Prof

Howard Zinn's influential mutilations of American history

Howard Zinn copied, pasted, and simplified his way to People's History of the United States. The rest of his scholarship wasn't much better.

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The Tyranny of the ZIP Code

They don't just locate us. They define us

They don't just locate where we are. They define who we are. 

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How Ghastly Were the Beginnings of European America?

The Savage New World

Bernard Bailyn paints a bloody picture of colonial life. Alan Taylor is skeptical. 

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Was the second half of the twentieth century the "Age of Eisenhower and Nixon"?

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Original Sin

Why the GOP is and will continue to be the party of white people

Why the Republicans are, and will continue to be, the party of white people: an historical investigation.

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