A 1990 Measles Outbreak Shows How the Disease Can Roar Back

To understand the virus’s re-emergence in America in 2025, some experts are looking to a past epidemic that had a high death rate in Philadelphia.

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Trump’s Attempt to Make Museums Submit Feels Familiar

MAGA would fill museums with self-glorifying kitsch, the aesthetic lingua franca of all authoritarians.

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How Trump-Putin Summit Signals Return to Imperial Thinking

The two leaders are bringing some old-world approaches to bear on a 21st-century conflict.

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Why Russia Sold Alaska to the U.S.

The Trump-Putin summit will take place in a former Russian colony that the United States bought for $7.2 million in 1867. Here’s how the deal came together and why its legacy matters.

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Trump Administration Plan to Oversee Smithsonian Exhibits Draws Criticism From Historians

The Trump administration’s plan to, in effect, audit the content of Smithsonian museums drew criticism from groups that represent scholars and promote free speech.

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White House Announces Comprehensive Review of Smithsonian Exhibitions

The Trump administration is giving museums 120 days to replace “divisive or ideologically driven language with unifying, historically accurate and constructive descriptions.”

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Trump’s Cultural Revolution Is Just Getting Started

Art can be effective at illuminating and healing only if it is unconstrained by authority.

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Statue of French General Accused of Torture Divides His Hometown

An effort to have a statue of Marcel Bigeard removed has reignited the debate over how the colonial past should be remembered.

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As the Supreme Court Focuses on the Past, Historians Turn to Advocacy

Spikes in the number and influence of briefs filed by historians have prompted questions about the role scholars should play in litigation.

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Erasing History in Our National Parks

Readers object to an executive order sanitizing troubling aspects of U.S. history. Also: “Dangerously irresponsible” policies; a home-schooling lag.

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