Vast Public Indifference

For a brief intro to the "101 Ways to Say 'Died'" series, click here . John Tyler Mann, Wrentham, MA, 1792 Here is ...

Dinah, 1762, Newport Common Burying Ground June 12th, 1762 died Dinah aged 28 Years Servt. to John Tweedy Wife of Haman Serv...

carving by John Bull, Newport Common Burying Ground, Newport, RI It's been a while. Between dissertation-babies and actual babies, I...

More than 5,000 women named America are listed in the 1850 Federal census. These are the best of them: America Bacon...

Congrats to the team at Brown on cracking Roger Williams's onerous shorthand and revealing a new text! I know we're all clamorin...

I know, Anna Wintour is not usually my beat, but bear with me a moment. Some news outlets are reporting rumors that President Obama is ...

Stephen Pinker, writing for the New York Times Opinionator wonders, " Why Are States So Red and Blue? " Yes, of course, red sta...

Tragic news from Virginia today — a man named Albert Peterson killed his family and himself because he "felt that our God-given rights...

That's probably not something that has been said very often. Thomas Lechford was a lawyer in 17th-century England (so maligned right off...

There's a new American Girl doll, and she's from . . . . . . the War of 1812? Ok. Wevs. Apparently, her father owns a shipya...

Peacock Bigger He was a merchant, brazier, and distiller in Philadelphia in the 1730s-1740s. Not kidding. Look him up .

I've been working with some probate records at the Mass State Archives this week. I try to be productive, but sometimes it's difficu...

New Haven Colony, 1642 : Samuel Hoskins and Elizabeth Cleverly being desirous to join together in the state of marriage, and not being abl...

Update: This is the CNN homepage on Saturday afternoon at 2:30 It's late, so I'll make this quick: I really wish that all of ...

Some stories about American history from around the internet: The New York Times covers book conservator Marie Malchodi's discovery o...

Today, I am reading Norman J.G. Pounds' The History of the English Parish: The Culture of Religion from Augustine to Victoria (2000) an...

Today, I've been mulling over Cotton Mather's A Christian Funeral (1713), specifically as it contrasts with the use of cemeteries e...

In The New Republic , Harvard Law Professor Einer Elhauge delivers an awe-inspiring smackdown of the "originalist" case against th...