Adam Hochschild | The New York Review of Books

Mildred Rutherford’s War

The “historian general” of the United Daughters of the Confederacy began the battle over the depiction of the Old South and slavery in US history textbooks that continues today.

December 7, 2023 issue

Don’t Blame the Southerners

June 8, 2023 issue

History Bright and Dark

Hillsdale College’s 1776 Curriculum and the documentary series based on the 1619 Project reflect deep divisions in how we recount our nation’s past.

The Hillsdale 1776 Curriculum

The 1619 Project

a six-part Hulu documentary series hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones

May 25, 2023 issue

Letter

David Kaiser

Don’t Blame the Southerners

June 8, 2023 issue

The Cruelties of Empire

Whether they were labeled internal revolts, police actions, or states of emergency, colonial wars were especially brutal.

Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire

by Caroline Elkins

In the Forest of No Joy: The Congo-Océan Railroad and the Tragedy of French Colonialism

by J.P. Daughton

November 24, 2022 issue

Who’s to Blame?

Three new books argue that disappearing jobs and widening inequality helped make possible Trump’s politics of resentment.

Wildland: The Making of America’s Fury

by Evan Osnos

Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump

by Spencer Ackerman

American Made: What Happens to People When Work Disappears

by Farah Stockman

May 12, 2022 issue

All-American Vigilantes

When the US entered World War I, right-wing organizations seized the opportunity to round up leftists, labor organizers, and suspected draft dodgers.

July 22, 2021 issue

Another Great Yesterday

Shadowlands: Fear and Freedom at the Oregon Standoff—A Western Tale of America in Crisis

by Anthony McCann

No Man’s Land

a PBS Independent Lens documentary film directed by David Byars

December 19, 2019 issue

Family Values

Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist

by Eli Saslow

September 26, 2019 issue

American Devilry

Beautiful Country Burn Again: Democracy, Rebellion, and Revolution

by Ben Fountain

Behold, America: The Entangled History of “America First” and “The American Dream”

by Sarah Churchwell

Hitler’s American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law

by James Q. Whitman

October 25, 2018 issue

Bang for the Buck

Congress, terrified of the NRA, has shielded manufacturers and dealers from any liability for firearms deaths, and has prevented the Centers for Disease Control from doing any studies of gun violence.

Armed in America: A History of Gun Rights from Colonial Militias to Concealed Carry

by Patrick J. Charles

Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment

by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Chosen Country: A Rebellion in the West

by James Pogue

April 5, 2018 issue

Ku Klux Klambakes

The Klan of the 1920s embodied the same racism as its predecessors, but served it up beneath a deceptively benign façade, in all-American patriotic colors.

The Second Coming of the KKK: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the American Political Tradition

by Linda Gordon

Ku Klux Kulture: America and the Klan in the 1920s

by Felix Harcourt

December 7, 2017 issue

When Dissent Became Treason

A period of unparalleled censorship, mass imprisonment, and anti-immigrant terror

America and the Great War: A Library of Congress Illustrated History

by Margaret E. Wagner, with an introduction by David M. Kennedy

The Great War

a three-part television series produced by Stephen Ives and Amanda Pollak for PBS’s American Experience

War Against War: The American Fight for Peace, 1914–1918

by Michael Kazin

Spider Web: The Birth of American Anticommunism

by Nick Fischer

September 28, 2017 issue

Our Awful Prisons: How They Can Be Changed

Today we have 710 people per 100,000 in prison in the US, compared to fifty-eight in Finland.

Mr. Smith Goes to Prison: What My Year Behind Bars Taught Me About America’s Prison Crisis

by Jeff Smith

Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People’s Guide to the Key Civil Rights Struggle of Our Time

by James Kilgore

The First Civil Right: How Liberals Built Prison America

by Naomi Murakawa

From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America

by Elizabeth Hinton

Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics

by Marie Gottschalk

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May 26, 2016 issue

The Trenches in Color

Because of the photography of their day, we tend to think of the world wars in black and white. Peter Walther’s The First World War in Colour feels like looking at a familiar scene through a different pair of eyeglasses.

September 5, 2014