Why Is America Afraid of Black History?
No one should fear a history that asks a country to live up to its highest ideals.
The Questions That Most Need Asking
The Atlantic revisits Reconstruction.
This Ghost of Slavery
A play of past and present
Sitcom
The Confederate General Whom All the Other Confederates Hated
James Longstreet became a champion of Reconstruction. Why?
How Reconstruction Created American Public Education
Freedpeople and their advocates persuaded the nation to embrace schooling for all.
How John F. Kennedy Fell for the Lost Cause
And the grandmother who wouldn’t let him get away with it
The Men Who Started the War
John Brown and the Secret Six—the abolitionists who funded the raid on Harpers Ferry—confronted a question as old as America: When is violence justified?
How the Negro Spiritual Changed American Popular Music—And America Itself
In 1871, the Fisk University singers embarked on a tour that introduced white Americans to a Black sound that would reshape the nation.
Freedmen’s Town
How one photographer documented the disappearing landscape of Houston’s Fourth Ward
What The Atlantic Got Wrong About Reconstruction
In 1901, a series of articles took a dim view of the era, and of the idea that all Americans ought to participate in the democratic process.
How Black Americans Kept Reconstruction Alive
The federal government abandoned Reconstruction in 1877, but Black people didn’t give up on the moment’s promise.
The Annotated Frederick Douglass
In 1866, the famous abolitionist laid out his vision for radically reshaping America in the pages of The Atlantic.
What Is Saturday Night Live Without the Shameless Self-Promotion?
Timothée Chalamet’s post-strike hosting gig was a celebration that doubled as a return to business as usual for the show.
A Cathartic Watch
Entertainment musts from Elizabeth Bruenig
Earthen Rivers Are Flowing Through the West’s Scorched Forests
After wildfires come devastating landslides.
Safe Room
The False Binary in Higher Ed
Liberal education and career training aren’t mutually exclusive.
London’s Day of Creeping Extremism
On a day dedicated to peace, the British capital is consumed by competing symbols.
A Paradoxical Week for Democrats
Watch the full episode of Washington Week With The Atlantic, November 10, 2023