Eugenicists like Paul Popenoe relied on dangerously flawed theories of heredity to describe different groups of people. Popenoe shows a couple a pedigree of "Black People of Artistic Ability," 1930.

Mormon Temple, commemorating statehood, 1896. Courtesy: Special Collections Dept., J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah Mormon settlers began a westward exodus, escaping persecution, in the ...

When vaudeville impresario Martin Beck "discovered" a struggling Harry Houdini in 1899, it was Houdini's ability to escape from handcuffs which caught his attention. Although Houdini was hardly the ...

In 1989, after two terms in office, Ronald Reagan delivered this farewell speech. This is the 34th time I'll speak to you from the Oval Office and the last. We've been together 8 years now, and soon ...

View of laborers preparing cotton for gins, on Alex. Knox's plantation, Mount Pleasant, near Charleston, S.C. 1874. Library of Congress Historians describe white Southerners' varied responses to ...

She made a name for herself by speaking out against fascism abroad and at home. Then the fight got personal. On the morning of August 25, 1934, the American journalist Dorothy Thompson was taking ...

Fidel Castro's life story is not the story of the leader of a poor underdeveloped nation struggling to survive against the fierce opposition of the United States. For four decades, Castro purposely ...

American society in the 1950s was geared toward the family. Marriage and children were part of the national agenda. And the Cold War was in part a culture war, with the American family at the center ...

Susanna on the way to Casa Susanna, Catskills, New York, Art Gallery of Ontario © AGO In the 1960s, a group of cross-dressing men and transgender women spent ...

For over four decades, Bernice Johnson Reagon has been a major cultural voice for freedom and justice. An African American woman's voice, a child of Southwest Georgia, a voice raised in song, born in ...

In August 1852, the Alta California exposed a brewing court battle. San Francisco's most renowned Chinese madam planned to sue a notorious Chinese leader for extortion. The beautiful Miss Ah Toy ...

In America, there are several non-Amish groups who share the same basic Anabaptist religious beliefs regarding pacifism and adult baptism, and who follow the teachings of Jesus in how they practice ...