The Woman Who Took on the Tycoon
John D. Rockefeller Sr. epitomized Gilded Age capitalism. Ida Tarbell was one of the few willing to hold him accountable.
July 05, 2012 |
By Gilbert King
The Vice Presidents That History Forgot
The U.S. vice presidency has been filled by a rogues gallery of mediocrities, criminals and even corpses
July 2012 |
By Tony Horwitz
How Well Do You Know Your Vice Presidents?
Test yourself on our quiz of the famous, infamous and not-so-famous least powerful men in the country
June 28, 2012 |
By K. Annabelle Smith
Khrushchev in Water Wings: On Mao, Humiliation and the Sino-Soviet Split
Angered by the way the Soviet Union treated him, Mao Zedong planned revenge on Nikita Khrushchev during the Soviet premier's 1958 visit to Beijing. Mao's weapon: a pool party.
May 04, 2012 |
By Mike Dash
Document Deep Dive: How the Homestead Act Transformed America
Compare documents filed by the first and last homesteaders in the United States
May 2012 |
By T.A. Frail and Megan Gambino
Should LBJ Be Ranked Alongside Lincoln?
Robert Caro, the esteemed biographer of Lyndon Baines Johnson, talks on the Shakespearean life of the 36th president
May 2012 |
By Ron Rosenbaum
A Journey to Obama’s Kenya
The dusty village where Barack Obama’s father was raised had high hopes after his son was elected president. What has happened since then?
May 2012 |
By Joshua Hammer
Robben Island: A Monument to Courage
To visit the brutal prison that held Mandela is haunting, yet inspiring
May 2012 |
By Scott Johnson
The Ottoman Empire’s Life-or-Death Race
Custom in the Ottoman Empire mandated that a condemned grand vizier could save his neck if he won a sprint against his executioner
March 22, 2012 |
By Mike Dash
Edward Curtis’ Epic Project to Photograph Native Americans
His 20-volume masterwork was hailed as "the most ambitious enterprise in publishing since the production of the King James Bible"—and he paid dearly for his ambition
March 21, 2012 |
By Gilbert King
Blue versus Green: Rocking the Byzantine Empire
When the spectators at Rome's spectacular circuses split into factions, it threatened to bring the Eastern Empire down. The day was saved by Byzantium's remarkable empress, but only at the cost of 30,000 lives
March 02, 2012 |
By Mike Dash
The Aftermath of Mountain Meadows
The massacre almost brought the United States to war against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but only one man was brought to trial: John D. Lee
February 29, 2012 |
By Gilbert King
When the Country's Founding Father is Your Founding Father
The descendants of American presidents are the athletic trainers, lawyers, salesmen and executives of everyday life
February 17, 2012 |
By Megan Gambino
General Grant in Love and War
The officer who gained glory as a warrior in the Civil War also had a domestic side.
February 14, 2012 |
By Gilbert King
The Prime Minister who Disappeared
In 1967, Harold Holt went for a swim off an Australian beach and never came back. By law, no official inquest could be held without a body. Soon the whispers of conspiracy began.
January 04, 2012 |
By Gilbert King
How Thomas Jefferson Created His Own Bible
Thanks to an extensive restoration process, the public can now see how Jefferson created his own version of the Scripture
January 2012 |
By Owen Edwards
Friends in the House, Hostility at Home
Coya Knutson won a seat in the U.S. House in 1954 but was undone by a secret she brought to Washington
December 29, 2011 |
By Gilbert King
The Great Dissenter and his Half-Brother
John Harlan championed racial justice on a hostile Supreme Court. Robert Harlan, a freed slave, achieved renown despite the court's decisions
December 20, 2011 |
By Gilbert King
Frozen in Place: December 1861
President Lincoln addresses the State of the Union and grows impatient with General McClellan
December 2011 |
By David Zax
The Man Who Busted the ‘Banksters’
Deceitful loans, self-dealing, unseemly tax avoidance—Ferdinand Pecora exposed it all after the financial collapse of 1929 and helped create a more transparent system
November 29, 2011 |
By Gilbert King
