Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina on December 4 2015.
Jonathan Drake/Reuters
An expert on American political rhetoric breaks down Donald Trump’s rhetorical prowess, pointing to the various techniques the candidate has mastered.
Dutch painter Pieter Claesz’s Still Life with Turkey Pie (1627) features a cooked turkey that’s been placed back inside its original skin, feathers and all.
Wikimedia Commons
Most of the flavor combinations and traditions we’ve come to associate with the holiday date back to the Middle Ages.
Part of the ongoing debate: some papaya growers in Hawaii have planted a strain that has been genetically modified to resist a virus.
remembertobreathe/flickr
What explains the huge gap between US and European consumers on GMO foods? A short history helps explain.
Two months after the bombing at Hiroshima.
US Department of Defense
US military censors contained information after the bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leaving Americans with a limited understanding of the impact of radiation.
Members of the Chitimacha language team (from left to right) Sam Boutte, Kim Walden and Rachel Vilcan use the new language software for the first time.
In the face of war, disease and outside cultural pressures, the Chitimacha language has survived – and now thrives.
Blowing up the desert – and people’s minds: the first atom bomb test in 1945.
US Government
The first atom bomb test seventy years ago today marks the start of a change in Americans’ thinking about radiation. On balance, our nuclear anxieties endure today.
Many readers have responded with outrage to the notion that Atticus Finch might be racist.
Erik S Lesser/EPA
As a historical document, Watchman is a fascinating read. It gives us valuable insight into how America prefers to remember its history of racism.
White painter William Gilbert Gaul’s To the End (1907-1909) uses the loyal slave trope.
Wikimedia Commons
Black Like Us? – a new exhibition at the Birmingham Museum of Art – looks at how blackness has been portrayed in American art through the years.
Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1 (commonly known as Whistler’s Mother), by James McNeill Whistler (1871).
Wikimedia Commons
The famous portrait, usually resident in France, is on a rare tour in the US. From looking at it, one might assume its subject had a tranquil, even monotonous, life. But one would be wrong.
People protest the Confederate battle flag.
EPA/Michael Nelson
President Obama’s recent condemnation of the Confederate battleflag mirrors the current and rapidly-changing public mood on this artefact. But attitudes to the flag have deeper roots.
Hamilton’s political enemies unduly tarnished his legacy.
'Hamilton' via www.shutterstock.com
Alexander Hamilton’s story is our story. It would be a mistake to remove him from the $10 bill.
The sun rises on Mother Emanuel Church June 20.
Brian Snyder/Reuters
Why studying South Carolina’s history led to one graduate student’s activism – and how that experience informs his reflections on the Charleston killing.
BB King performs in Hamburg, Germany in this 1971 photograph.
Heinrich Klaffs/flickr
Before being crowned the “King of the Blues,” a young Riley King honed his on-stage persona and made crucial contacts as a radio DJ.
Time to wave them off.
© Lionsgate
In some significant ways, Americans have fewer avenues for advancement than the characters of Mad Men do.
A 1909 cartoon suggested taxes on divorces, dogs, rubber plants and more during debate over the 16th Amendment
1909 Cartoon via www.shutterstock.com
As you wrestle with figuring out what you owe Uncle Sam, consider why the United States opted for an income tax back in 1913.
Normalcy restored?
EPA/Panama Presidency
In a candid 1962 conversation with a Guardian editor, President Kennedy unpacked his views on Cuba, the Soviet Union, and nuclear war. What can Obama learn from him?
Fear of the unknown: would free radio broadcasts hurt gate receipts?
glove and radio from www.shutterstock.com
With owners deeply divided over radio, a 20-year tug-of-war would ensue.
Drawings by male warriors – like Black Hawk’s ‘Dream or Vision or Himself Changed to a Destroyer or Riding a Bufalo Eagle (1880-1881)’ – often depicted visions perceived during meditation and fasting.
New York State Historical Association, Fenimore Art Museum/John Bigelow Taylor
A new exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art celebrates 2,000 years of artistic achievement.
Britain’s Prince Harry and his fiancee Meghan Markle appear on the grounds of Kensington Palace in London, Nov. 27, 2017.
AP Photo/Matt Dunham
It might seem strange, especially given the nation’s decision to sever ties with George III in 1776.
Through his music, Lead Belly rejected the stereotype that country music was the domain of white artists, while blues music was reserved for blacks.
Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection depicts the fully-formed artist – a blues musician, yes, but also a performer of string-band, country and pop songs.