The Future of World War II

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Manuscript fragments hiding in plain sight shed light on medieval Guernsey’s literary life

Researchers say texts from 12th to 15th centuries ‘hint at a culture which has not even been imagined’

A century on, San Rocco Italian tradition endures

ALIQUIPPA, Pennsylvania — A century ago, industrial communities across western Pennsylvania, from Johnstown to Beaver County, were home to large and growing Italian immigrant populations. They were part of the great migration from Italy that accelerated after 1890 and peaked around World War I. Drawn here by jobs in steel mills, coal mines, railroads, and construction, they came seeking wages, stability, and a better life for their families.

Sharks have always stoked panic in Australia. While scientific understanding grows, conservation efforts can be unseated by fear

From Aboriginal rock art to colonial encounters, sharks have been a figure of fear and fascination throughout the long human history of this continent

What Came After Hiroshima

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An Intoxicating 500-Year-Old Mystery

The Voynich Manuscript has long baffled scholars—and attracted cranks and conspiracy theorists. Now a prominent medievalist is taking a new approach to unlocking its secrets.

Historian retraces Underground Railroad on "Freedom Walk" to mark America's 250-year journey

As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of the nation's founding, one historian is traveling 750 miles to remind Americans where that history has taken us.

Review of Centennial by Fergus M. Bordewich

Who attended the Great Fair? A proverbial melting pot of Americans from all walks of life, for one thing. “There were ordinary Americans of all kinds, war veterans from both North and South, presidential candidates, celebrities ranging from P.T. Barnum to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Mark Twain.” There was a distinctive international flavor, too. “Foreign visitors numbered in the hundreds of thousands,” Bordewich writes, “most famous among them Emperor Don Pedro II of Brazil, the first foreign head of state ever to visit the United States, who loved the Exposition so much that he often wandered among the crowds in disguise.”

Gordon S Wood, Pulitzer-prize winning historian, dies after being struck by a car in Rhode Island

A renowned academic, Wood was hit by a car as he was crossing a supermarket’s parking lot and later died of the injuries

The Traveller by Andrea Wulf review

A revelatory account of the life of George Forster, whose rejection of racial hierarchies stood out amongst his peers

Here’s what New York looked like in 1973, the last time the Knicks won a championship

Shirley Chisholm was in Congress, Led Zep played Madison Square Garden and fans took seats out of Yankee Stadium

World War II with Tom Hanks review

This 20-episode take on the second world war, helmed by the Saving Private Ryan star, is a vast creation. But it still manages to wind up feeling basic – despite its great archive footage