team history
This Train Station is Poised to Help Detroit Get Back on Track
In 1913, when it opened its doors to passengers, the 18-story, 500,000 square-foot Michigan Central Station was the tallest rail station in the world. But it was more then just a transportation hub; the station, with vaulted ceilings and marble floors, represented Detroit’s ...read more
The 1990s: When Technology Upended Our World
If you were to pick the one, singular, culture-defining moment from the ’90s—a decade that gave us so many—you’d be hard pressed to beat Bill Clinton–Monica Lewinsky affair. Even now, in our current climate of oversharing and punch-drunk numbness to the spewing of digital media, ...read more
Are We Living in the Gilded Age 2.0 ?
In a region filled with the palatial homes of the rich and famous, one mansion stands out. Measuring an astonishing 38,000 square feet (plus 17,000 more on the exterior), it was crafted with the finest and most expensive materials. The interior boasts 12 bedrooms, 21 bathrooms ...read more
'Why Did They Hate Us?': Explaining the Lynching Memorial to My Son
Is there any good way to teach children about lynching? After attending the opening of a powerful new memorial and museum, which together explore some of the most painful aspects of American history, I wondered about the prospect of returning there with my 12-year-old son. My ...read more
How the Search for Little Green Men—or Any Life on Mars—Got Smarter
Humans have been captivated by Mars almost as long as we’ve been watching the night sky. The ancient Greeks and Romans watched nightly as a reddish dot moved among the stars, growing dimmer and brighter in a two-year cycle. Each named it for the god of war; the Roman version, ...read more
How North Korea Feeds Its Impoverished People a Steady Diet of Anti-U.S. Paranoia
For nearly seven decades, the Kim family dynasty has warned the North Korean people that the United States is a murderous superpower bent upon their annihilation—and their only chance of survival is readiness for an American attack. This policy of paranoia without end has driven ...read more
The Surprising Human Factors Behind the Fall of the Berlin Wall
Great events do not always have great causes. One of history’s biggest surprises is how sometimes a series of small, seemingly insignificant events can suddenly add up to momentous change. That’s how it happened with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the point-of-no-return moment in ...read more
Was 1968 America’s Bloodiest Year in Politics?
Two short years after 1968, the year the United States endured a series of cataclysmic episodes of politically tinged bloodletting, historian Richard Hofstadter observed that “Americans certainly have a reason to inquire whether…they are not a people of exceptional violence.” ...read more
Inside the Conversion Tactics of the Early Christian Church
The triumph of Christianity over the pagan religions of ancient Rome led to the greatest historical transformation the West has ever seen: a transformation that was not only religious, but also social, political and cultural. Just in terms of “high culture,” Western art, music, ...read more
The Complicated Pasts of 6 Trailblazing Women
“Well-behaved women seldom make history,” wrote Harvard historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich memorably in 1976. She argued that “ordinary” women who don’t happen to marry future presidents…or lead the way to be the first in their fields…or get burned at the stake are rarely ...read more
Why the U.S. Has Spent 200 Years Flip-Flopping Between Isolationism and Engagement
What does the United States want to be to the world? And what would the world like? A welcoming beacon of democracy? A partner in trade and security? A wary, but distant ally? Or a fortress that has pulled up its drawbridge? For America’s allies and foes alike, the messaging of ...read more
Why Have Americans Always Been So Obsessed with the Land?
Something about land lies deep in the American psyche. Since the early 20th century most Americans have resided in cities and suburbs, yet the mystique of agrarian life draws millions to farmers’ markets and makes the family farm a touchstone of American politics. The cowboy, ...read more
Early Women’s Rights Activists Wanted Much More than Suffrage
This may sound odd coming from a scholar of women’s history and a newly minted legislator, but I think we’ve heard enough about women’s suffrage. When New York State recently marked the 100th anniversary of its passage of women’s right to vote, I ought to have joined the ...read more
The Revolution That Was 1968
Two assassinations, a bloody war, violent protests, racial unrest, colorful hippies, a celebration of sex and rebellion, and John Lennon’s countercultural anthem, “Revolution”—1968 had them all. It was the year that shattered the fragile consensus that had shaped American society ...read more
How a Little-Known ’60s Congressman Unwittingly Upended U.S. Immigration
Debates over immigration policy have assumed center stage in Washington and have even contributed to a government shutdown. President Donald Trump and his conservative allies want to put an end to “chain migration” that he says allows “truly evil” people into the United States. ...read more
Why Populism in America is a Double-Edged Sword
In the closing days of 2017, President Donald Trump scored his sole major legislative victory by pushing through Congress a sweeping tax cut. Every objective analysis of the new legislation has found that it overwhelmingly benefits wealthy people and corporations—and adds more ...read more
Balancing Historical Accuracy and a Gripping Story Is a Challenge. ‘The Post’ Nails It
In 2006 I walked into a dim and dusty backroom of an old courthouse in upstate New York and my heart stopped. Before me stood a wall of shelves on which thousands of pieces of paper had been haphazardly crammed—countless documents related to the Attica prison uprising of 1971 ...read more