After Failing Math Twice, a Young Benjamin Franklin Turned to This Popular 17th-Century Textbook
A 19th-century scholar claimed that “Cocker’s Arithmetick” had “probably made as much stir and noise in the English world as any [book]—next to the Bible”
Kids Send Thousands of Letters to Santa Each Year. Here’s What Really Happens to Them
The United States Postal Service and volunteers have responded to North Pole holiday correspondence over the past century
Four Decades After the Fall of Argentina’s Dictatorship, a Fight Over the Country’s Darkest Chapter Is Reopening Grievous Wounds
Inside the fight to memorialize victims of the military junta that ruled over the South American nation in the 1970s and ‘80s
These Black Soldiers Fought for the British During the American Revolution in Exchange for Freedom From Slavery
The Carolina Corps achieved emancipation through military service, paving the way for future fighters in the British Empire to do the same
How a Tale of Demonic Possession Predicted the Decline of an Early Medieval Empire
A new book examines the rise and fall of the Carolingian dynasty, discussing how people across social classes understood the momentous history of their day
The Real Story Behind Netflix’s ‘The Six Triple Eight,’ a New Tyler Perry Film About the Women of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion
The Black, female unit sorted through a massive backlog of undelivered mail, raising American soldiers’ morale during World War II
How ‘Blackbirders’ Forced Tens of Thousands of Pacific Islanders Into Slavery After the Civil War
The decline of the American South’s cotton and sugar industries paved the way for plantations in British-controlled Fiji and Australia, where victims of “blackbirding” endured horrific working conditions
When 170 Wild Monkeys Escaped From a ‘Jungle Camp’ and Terrorized New York
In 1935, dozens of rhesus macaques absconded from Frank Buck’s Long Island menagerie. Nearly a century later, 43 members of the same species broke out of a South Carolina research facility
The Ten Best History Books of 2024
Our favorite titles of the year resurrect forgotten histories and examine how the United States ended up where it is today
What Food Was Served at the First Thanksgiving in 1621?
Turkey may have been part of the holiday meal, along with venison, shellfish and corn, but pies and potatoes were decidedly not on the menu
The Real Story Behind Apple TV+’s ‘Blitz,’ a New Steve McQueen Movie About Britain’s Everyday World War II Heroes
Starring Saoirse Ronan as a young mother, the film celebrates Londoners’ resilience in the face of an eight-month Nazi aerial bombing campaign
Can Insects See Color? And More Questions From Our Readers
You’ve got questions. We’ve got experts
The Real History Behind Ridley Scott’s ‘Gladiator II’ and Life as a Fighter in the Ancient Roman Arena
The “Gladiator” sequel centers on Lucius Verus, the secret son of Russell Crowe’s character from the 2000 film. Both men achieve fame as enslaved fighters driven by their desire for revenge
During World War II, This Farmer Risked Everything to Help His Japanese American Neighbors
When the U.S. government sent the Tsukamoto family to an incarceration camp in 1942, one neighbor stepped up to save the farms they left behind, giving them something to come home to
From Jealous Spouses to Paranoid Bosses, Pedometers Quantified Suspicion in the 19th Century
The devices were used to track movement and measure productivity—an insightful foreshadowing of our current preoccupation with personal data
How Mistletoe Became a Christmas Kissing Tradition
The thorny origins of the yuletide canoodling ritual
The Hero Who Convinced His Fellow Ornithologists of the Obvious: Stop Shooting Rare Birds and Watch Them Instead
Too late to save the ivory-billed woodpecker, Arthur Allen changed science forever with his seemingly simple idea
How an Interracial Marriage Sparked One of the Most Scandalous Trials of the Roaring Twenties
Under pressure from his wealthy family, real estate heir Leonard “Kip” Rhinelander claimed that his new wife, Alice Beatrice Jones, had tricked him into believing she was white
How Fallingwater Gave Frank Lloyd Wright a Second Wind
The architectural wonder re-established the designer as a titan of his generation and shifted the public’s view of Modernism from a foreign movement to a part of the American character
The Hidden History of Bermuda Is Reshaping the Way We Think About Colonial America
New archaeological finds on the islands have revealed secrets about one of Britain’s first settlements in the Americas—and the surprising ways it changed the New World
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