To Heil, or Not To Heil, When Traveling in the Third Reich By Longreads Feature One of the first decisions any tourist had to make when crossing the German border in the mid-1930s was whether or not to “Heil Hitler.”
People Sorting: An Interview With ‘Personality Brokers’ Author Merve Emre By Jessica Gross Feature Merve Emre on the history of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
The Dead End on My Record Shelf By Longreads Feature I believed that there was no music existing in the world with an unbroken connection to its original context. I was wrong.
Do You Want to Know a Secret: The Untold Stories of Paul McCartney By Krista Stevens Highlight “Imagine realizing one day that you’re a Beatle. Think about how you might decide to handle that for the next 50, 60, 70 years.”
A Trip to Tolstoy Farm By Jordan Michael Smith Feature Even if one of the last surviving Tolstoyan communes has fallen short of Leo Tolstoy’s ideals, it’s still turned into something meaningful. It’s a place for people who don’t want to be found.
An Inquiry Into Abuse By Elon Green Feature Allegations that Richard Nixon beat his wife, Pat Nixon, have circulated for decades without serious examination by the journalists who covered his presidency. It’s time to look more closely at what’s been hiding in plain view.
Seeing Private Everyman By Steve Edwards Feature Steve Edwards searches for the hidden truths in the public and private sacrifices his granddad made serving in World War II.
The Bungled Bank Robbery That Ended in a Landmark Legal Ruling By Longreads Feature In 1958, John Leo Brady got his lover pregnant and decided to stick up a bank to fund a new life. It ended with a murder, a Supreme Court case, and the formation of the Brady rule.
Ghost Writer: The Story of Patience Worth, the Posthumous Author By Joy Lanzendorfer Feature The most remarkable thing about Patience Worth wasn’t that she was dead. It was that all she wanted to do was write books.
Fairy Scapegoats: A History of the Persecution of Changeling Children By Longreads Feature Distraught over a sick or disabled child, parents would torture — sometimes even kill — what they believed to be a malevolent stand-in for a stolen baby.
The Island that Disappeared By Aaron Gilbreath Feature An Englishman searches for what’s left of Providence, a failed Puritan colony in the Caribbean.
How Lobbyists Normalized the Use of Chemical Weapons on American Civilians By Longreads Feature Or, how we learned to stop worrying and love the gas.
Welcome to Parliament! Bachelors Can Only Wear Brown Shoes Every Other Tuesday By Michelle Weber Highlight What changes politically if Parliament moves to a modern, inclusive space from one steeped in sexist, classist history?
When Newspapers Cover the Private Lives of Nazis By Matt Giles Commentary Ordinary details can furnish a room, they can set a table, they can fill the time between hushed meetings of planned genocide.
How Does It Feel? An Alternative American History, Told With Folk Music By Longreads Feature On Guthrie, Robeson, Seeger, Lomax, Dylan, the Red Scare, the fall of labor, and what folk music had to do with it.
American Sphinx By Colin Dickey Feature Civil War monuments in the North erased an emancipated Black population. But the Sphinx looked to a new world: an integrated Africa and America.
America’s First Addiction Epidemic By Longreads Feature The alcohol epidemic devastated Native American communities, leading to crippling poverty, astonishingly high mortality rates — and a successful sobriety movement.
These Are the Locals Who Get The Story of Charlottesville Right By Nell Boeschenstein Commentary The historians, activists, reporters, and columnists who tell the complicated and ever-changing story of their own community.
The Hippies Who Hated the Summer of Love By Longreads Feature The merchants of Haight-Ashbury advertised a summer of free food, free lodging, and free love. What they got instead was a civic nightmare.
Whose Fault Was Dunkirk? By Longreads Feature For years, historians have blamed King Leopold of Belgium. But did they fall for Allied propaganda?
How to Get Away with Spying for the Enemy By Longreads Feature How does someone get away with helping a foreign adversary? Writer Sarah Laskow digs into the gonzo story of an American acquitted of spying for the Soviets—even after he confessed to it.
Norma McCorvey Versus Jane Roe By Longreads Feature In 1970, a homeless woman pregnant with her third child met with two lawyers at a pizzeria in Dallas. Did it matter, in the end, who Jane Roe really was?
What It Takes to Remove a President Who Can’t Do the Job By Michelle Legro Commentary Is he confused, insane, or just paranoid? Evan Osnos traces the history of presidential incapacity for the New Yorker
Where Were You the First Time You Realized the Government Wasn’t Always On the Ball? By Michelle Weber Highlight The 1969 oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara galvanized environmental activism, and Pacific Standard’s oral history is a great read.
A History of American Protest Music: When Nina Simone Sang What Everyone Was Thinking By Tom Maxwell Feature “Mississippi Goddam” was an angry response to tragedy, in show tune form.
Coretta Scott King Fuelled the Civil Rights Movement with ‘Courage, Dignity, and Poise’ By Krista Stevens Highlight How Coretta Scott King’s “grace, diginity, and poise” in the face of horrific tragedy fuelled the Civil Rights Movement.
On the Hunt for the Romanov Easter Eggs By Pam Mandel Highlight Kind of takes the thrill out of your Cadbury Creme, your Kinder Surprise.
The Bitter History of Law and Order in America By Andrea Pitzer Feature It has stifled suffrage, blamed immigrants for chaos, and suppressed civil rights. It’s also how Donald Trump views the entire world.
The High-Water Mark: The Battle of Gettysburg, the Jersey Shore, and the Death of My Father By Dane A. Wisher Feature Contemplating history, family, and today’s America, Dane A. Wisher tells the story of spreading his father’s ashes on the battlefield at Gettysburg National Park and coming to terms with his life and death.
Building In the Shadow of Our Own Destruction By Colin Dickey Feature Those who would build enormous structures—skyscrapers, bridges, border walls—should do so with an eye toward their eventual ruin.
