American history

Woman in crowd looking at camera

Liberia was founded by people enslaved in the US. Advocates say the US should not end an immigration program that helps them.

Global Politics

A small immigration program for Liberians in the US will expire at the end of March. Minnesota economists and health care companies say their losing immigration status will have an outsized effect.

Presidential Performances

Arts, Culture & Media

Special Guest: Rebecca Solnit

Arts, Culture & Media

Tippecanoe and Tyler Too

Arts, Culture & Media

Cakewalk

Arts, Culture & Media

The Riot of 1900

Arts, Culture & Media

At the turn of the 20th century, New Orleans was one of the few places in America where people of different races could play music together and live and work side by side. That delicate balance blew up in 1900, when the city’s native-born Whites, ethnic immigrants, Blacks, and Creoles found themselves in the middle […]

American Icons: The Scarlet Letter

Arts, Culture & Media

One of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ancestors was a judge in the Salem witch trials. In his novel of early America, Hawthorne explores the tension between our deeply ingrained Puritanism and…

American Icons: “Migrant Mother”

Arts, Culture & Media

Before it became the all-purpose image of hardship, Dorothea Lange’s famous portrait was just one of hundreds she shot to document poverty in the Depression.

Taylor Mac’s History of American Pop Music in 24 Hours

Arts, Culture & Media

Taylor Mac isn’t your typical drag performer. For one thing, he’s working on a 24-hour revue of American pop music that goes all the way back to the Revolutionary War.

Does the South Even Need Its Own Flag?

Arts, Culture & Media

We asked you to suggest a new icon for the South to replace the Confederate flag — and we got lots of reactions.