William Deverell, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and Elizabeth A. Logan, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
The US has learned that it cannot suppress its way to a healthy relationship with fire in the West. That strategy failed, even before climate change proved it to be no strategy at all.
A survey of U.S. history teachers found they teach about 9/11 primarily on the date of the anniversary.
Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images
The 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks is an opportunity for teachers to focus less on recreating the day and more on what students can learn from it, two curriculum experts argue.
Interstate 980 cuts off West Oakland, Calif., at top, from other Oakland neighborhoods.
Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images
Two urban policy experts explain why taking down highways that have isolated low-income and minority neighborhoods for decades is an important part of the pending infrastructure bill.
An allegorical painting depicted the British Empire taking in American loyalists in 1783.
Benjamin West’s portrait of John Eardley Wilmot, 1812. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
When people fled the new United States in the 18th century, they were taken in by the British Empire but became disillusioned by unfulfilled British promises.
The U.S. military is handing the keys over to Afghan forces.
Joe Marek/U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
For much of the country’s history, Americans won their wars decisively, with the complete surrender of enemy forces and the home front’s perception of total victory.
McAfee Knob in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, one of the Appalachian Trail’s most scenic vistas.
Ben Townsend/Flickr
When forester Benton MacKaye proposed building an Appalachian Trail 100 years ago, he was really thinking about preserving a larger region as a haven from industrial life.
Native American students at the Carlisle Indian School, circa 1899.
Library of Congress/Corbis Historical Collection/VCG via Getty Images
Ernest Knocks Off was 18 when he arrived at the Carlisle boarding school in 1879. He was one of many young Native people who fought – in his case, to the death – to retain their language and culture.
African Americans were used as slave labour in California and other western US territories during the 1850s.
California State Library
If you thought slavery in the US was confined to southern states, think again.
A high school student gets his COVID-19 shot at a pop-up vaccine clinic at a public charter school in Los Angeles.
Al Seib / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
For decades, US schools have been common sites for vaccine clinics to respond to outbreaks and provide catch-up immunizations. So why are they suddenly controversial?
About 1 in 3 homeowners across the Miami region live in condos, many with waterfront views.
Kelly Kagan
Following the deadly collapse of a condo high-rise in Florida, a historian of this kind of housing explains how it offers a sense of community that many people seek.
The “Big Inch” oil pipeline at Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, around 1943.
Betttman via Getty Images
Proposals for new oil and gas pipelines can generate intense debate today, but during World War II the US built an oil pipeline more than 1,300 miles long in less than a year.
As a printer’s apprentice in 1721, Franklin had a front-row seat to the controversy around a new prevention technique.
ClassicStock/Archive Photos via Getty Images
When Bostonians in 1721 faced a deadly smallpox outbreak, a new procedure called inoculation was found to help fend off the disease. Not everyone was won over, and newspapers fed the controversy.
Fireworks shows commonly celebrate the nation’s birthday.
Pete Saloutos via Getty Images
Ford’s electric F-150 pickup won’t roll off assembly lines until early 2022, but the company has received thousands of preorders already for a vehicle aimed at the mass market, not eco-buyers.
Thuso Mbedu is plays Cora in The Underground Railroad, a woman on the run to freedom in the north of the US.
Kyle Kaplan/Amazon Studios
At once tender and horrific, The Underground Railroad’s use of visuals and sound beautifully portray the reality of slavery and its legacy in the US today.
Soldiers of the Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team in Bruyères, France.
U.S. Army Signal Corps via Wikimedia Commons
Susan H. Kamei, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
For AAPI History Month: Young Japanese American men who were incarcerated because they were presumed to be disloyal were considered loyal enough for compulsory military service.
Confederate currency had images of enslaved people, historical figures and mythical deities.
elycefeliz/Flickr
The name change of a local creek in central Iowa reflects broader national trends that are recognizing derogatory or racist connotations.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, standing at center and facing left just above the eagle, takes the presidential oath of office for the third time in 1941.
FDR Presidential Library and Museum via Flickr
The story of the alleged Atlanta shooter highlights the two most common ways Americans think about compulsive behaviors – considering them the results of temptation and treating them as diseases.