Since 1982, presidents have invited special guests to the State of the Union who they believe embody values around which the nation can rally.
Articles on US history
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Bison once dominated the Great Plains but were nearly wiped out by hunters in the 1800s. Now scientists are learning that bison’s presence improves plant and wildlife diversity on the prairies.
Something needed to be done to mask the taste of bootleg alcohol that could include ingredients ranging from dead rats to wood tar.
History shows that Congress can play an important role in checking a president’s power.
Many homes, parks and businesses in US cities stand on former manufacturing sites that may have left legacy hazardous wastes behind. A new book calls for more research into our urban industrial past.
Presidents past have used a nearly limitless power of pardon to halt criminal prosecutions before. What’s to stop Trump?
The Pilgrims repeatedly thanked God for their good fortune. But without two earlier developments, the entire undertaking at New Plymouth would have likely failed.
Researchers have analyzed data from the last 50 years of medals to learn what presidents consider important and what legacy they hope to leave behind.
In 1968, Lyndon Johnson’s ridicule of presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey as weak and feminine tells us something about how a party of progressives still struggles with the idea of masculinity.
From Thomas Jefferson to Donald Trump, the idea of the little guy ignored by politicians has loomed large in American political rhetoric.
In scrutinizing statues honoring Confederate figures, journalists have overlooked military bases named after generals who fought to defend the slavery of black people.
The claim of “resistance” inside the White House offers the possibility of government by Trump appointees who prefer to keep their positions rather than publicly denounce a man they disapprove of.
The reverberations of JFK’s assassination can still be felt to this day in the paranoid and racialised politics of the American right
How politicians have won over voters through the art of the comeback throughout history.
Enslaved workers used to grow cotton and mill flour. Now prisoners grind beef and crate eggs. Here, a historian explores Americans’ troubling habit of consuming the products of slave labor.
Huge fires roared through Yellowstone National Park in the summer of 1988, scorching one-third of the park. Since then the park has been a valuable lab for studying how forests recover from fires.
A giant of the US political scene, John McCain had friends and enemies on all sides.
Almost two years in, Trump finally has a science adviser in position. History demonstrates that the role is at least as political as it is scientific.
Confrontational characters spouting conspiracy theories and fringe ideas have been around since American broadcasting began. With Alex Jones banished from the web, someone else will take his place.
The Ogalalla Aquifer is a vast underground lake that irrigates farms across the US Great Plains. It took thousands of years to fill, but human use could drain it in roughly a century.
Top contributors
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Professor of History, Penn State
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Associate Professor of Instruction, The University of Texas at Austin
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Emeritus Professor of Life Sciences, Arizona State University
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Distinguished Professor and Professor of the Humanities, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
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Professor of Urban Policy and Planning, Hunter College
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Distinguished Professor of History and Environmental Studies, Penn State
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Professor of Journalism, Indiana University
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Professor of History and Provost Emeritus, Binghamton University, State University of New York
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Visiting Assistant Professor of History, Miami University
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Associate Professor of History, Deakin University
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William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College
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Chester D. Tripp Professor of History, Yale University
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Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Utah
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Professor of History, University of New Hampshire
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Professor of History, McGill University