history



The 11 days when young Thomas Jefferson never existed

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I think Thomas Jefferson’s gravestone is weird. First of all, the well-wishers throw a lot of pennies on it. You’d think more people would toss nickels on Thomas Jefferson’s grave. After all, Thomas’s head, which is on the face of the nickel, lies just feet below the stone, and the image of his slavemanse Monticello,… Read more »


Hidden truth in Rosewood, Florida

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Today I visited Rosewood, Florida, a town with a past so tangled that its historical marker requires two sides to tell it. That sign is pretty much all there is to tell the story. That’s because Rosewood was erased. It was torched by racists in 1923. The tale is as convoluted as it is painful,… Read more »


The mass grave for 11,500 in the middle of New York City

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We obsess over the deaths of individuals. When one notable person dies, or when one person dies notably, we imbue that person with our fears, with idealizations of our better nature, or with a rueful but unspoken gratitude of “there but for the grace of God go I.” But when we die in batches, we… Read more »


On the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire anniversary, a government that dishonors it

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It happened on March 25, but there had been warnings for years. Factory owners across America amassed fortunes by exploiting what was, at the time, a seemingly inexhaustible resource: immigrants. Newly arrived Europeans were expendable. They had a weak political voice, so crossing them had little negative impact for politicians and none for businessmen, since… Read more »


Transportation is life

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The government doesn’t pay much attention to making sure we can get where we need to go. Subway lines are falling apart, buses infrequent, train systems decimated, and high-speed rail has been politicized into a fantasy. The ways in which we suffer extend far beyond mere inconvenience. In America, getting there is not considered a… Read more »


Guess the little bastard

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So… have a look at this guy. Do you know who this is? I have this picture pinned up by my desk. It’s not hard to see what’s so captivating about it. This 21-year-old kid is smug! There’s something incredibly cocky about the little devil; he just thinks he knows all the answers, doesn’t he?… Read more »


Charlie Chaplin was the immigrant America refused

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One of the fascinating things about studying American history is that it’s so full of contradictions. In order for a country of our size and variety to cohere at all, we require a group acceptance of some pretty romantic mythology. And often, the real story is a lot uglier than the prettified conventional wisdom we’re… Read more »


Enough is not enough anymore, and everything is ‘over’

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Today, a singer-songwriter I like, Jay Brannan, had an outburst on his Facebook page: “when an item or article of clothing wears out or breaks, i want to replace it with EXACTLY the same thing. the idea of “discontinuing” or “redesigning” ruins life.” Soon after, he tweeted the same thought, refining it: “the idea of… Read more »


The Statue of Liberty is an Embarrassment

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At least, it was when it began. It was in the Depression of 1873. A few years before, a bunch of greedy New York bankers artificially jacked up the price of gold, causing a financial panic and sending America into a slump that lasted for years. (Sounding familiar yet?) Anyway, at the time, France was… Read more »