american history

Harvard History professor Joyce Chaplin’s new book, "The Franklin Stove: An Unintended American Revolution," is the story of this singular invention, and a revelatory new look at Benjamin Franklin, the Founding Father we thought we knew.

Steve Inskeep is a cohost of NPR’s Morning Edition, the most widely heard radio program in the United States. His new book, "Differ We Must," is an exploration of Abraham Lincoln’s political acumen, illuminating a great politician’s strategy in a country divided—and lessons for our own disorderly present.

Amy Godine’s new book, "The Black Woods,"- chronicles the history of Black pioneers in New York's northern wilderness.Amy Godine has been writing and speaking about ethnic, migratory, and Black Adirondack history for more than three decades. Exhibits she has curated include "Dreaming of Timbuctoo" at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site in North Elba, New York.

Steve Inskeep is a cohost of NPR’s Morning Edition, the most widely heard radio program in the United States. His new book, "Differ We Must," is an exploration of Abraham Lincoln’s political acumen, illuminating a great politician’s strategy in a country divided—and lessons for our own disorderly present.

In "The Women of NOW," the historian Katherine Turk chronicles the growth and enduring influence of this foundational group through three lesser-known members who became leaders: Aileen Hernandez, a federal official of Jamaican American heritage; Mary Jean Collins, a working-class union organizer and Chicago Catholic; and Patricia Hill Burnett, a Michigan Republican, artist, and former beauty queen. From its bold inception through the tumultuous training ground of the 1970s, NOW’s feminism flooded the nation, permanently shifted American culture and politics, and clashed with conservative forces, presaging our fractured national landscape.

Opalka Gallery’s new exhibit, “Up South: Reflections on the Great Migration by ransome,” is a solo exhibition of new work on view through April 22.

Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln had a record of political failure. In 1858, he had lost a celebrated Senate bid against incumbent Stephen Douglas, his second failed Senate run, and had not held public office since one term in Congress a decade earlier. As the Republican National Convention opened in mid-May 1860 in Chicago, powerful New York Senator William Seward was the overwhelming favorite for the presidential nomination, with notables like Salmon Chase and Edward Bates in the running. Few thought Lincoln stood a chance.

There will be a free screening of "The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks" at UPAC in Kingston, New York tonight at 7 p.m. The film takes a deeper dive into the groundbreaking actions spearheaded by Rosa Parks throughout the course of the civil rights movement. Acclaimed director Yoruba Richen will participate in an in-person Q&A following the screening and she joins us this morning.

In "Myth America," Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer have assembled an all-star team of fellow historians to push back against this misinformation. The contributors debunk narratives that portray the New Deal and Great Society as failures, immigrants as hostile invaders, and feminists as anti-family warriors, among numerous other partisan lies.

Writer, political analyst, and co-host of The Muckrake podcast, Jared Yates Sexton takes a hard look at our nation’s history to fully understand these strange and dangerous times in his book "The Midnight Kingdom: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis."