Read: Articles from Origins

The Alcoholics Anonymous logo at a church. (Image by Rachel K)
A Brief History of Alcoholics Anonymous

Cover of Philanthropy in America: A History by Olivier Zunz.
The Gifts That Keep On Giving
Cover of Patrick Henry: First Among Patriots by Thomas S. Kidd
Patriot or Pragmatist?
Cover of The Battle of Adwa African Victory in the Age of Empire by Raymond Jonas
When Ethiopia Stunned the World
Cover of All the Missing Souls: A Personal History of the War Crimes Tribunals by David SchefferDavid S
Bringing Evil to Justice
Cover of The Young Turks' Crime against Humanity: The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire by Taner Akçam
The Crime That Dare Not Speak Its Name
Cover of the Measure of Earth The Enlightenment Expedition That Reshaped Our World by Larrie D. Ferreiro
Figuring Out the Shape of the World
Rosie Castro with her sons, Joaquín, left, and Julián, April 23, 2006 (ZUMA Wire/San Antonio Express-News/Helen L. Montoya)
No Julian Castro without Mother Rosie Castro
This detail from an illustration in a 1911 Industrial Workers of the World publication depicts a class of workers struggling to hold up finely dressed elites while they drink and dine.
From Karl Marx to Karl Rove: “Class Warfare” in American Politics
Spraying Pesticides - NARA 1940
Fifty Years After “Silent Spring,” Let’s Not Roll Back Environmental Protections
An orientalist nineteenth century Russian view of Samarkand in the time of Timur.
A Castilian in Samarkand, 1404
Cover of Motherland in Danger: Soviet Propaganda during World War II by Karel C. Berkhoff
Long Live the Soviet Motherland?
Paul Ryan, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
Ryan’s Hope: A Vice Presidency in the Tradition of Dick Cheney and Joe Biden
In 2007, Russia planted a titanium flag in the chilly arctic depths at the North Pole.
Russia and the Race for the Arctic
Signal Soldiers train to protect against Nuclear Biological and Chemical threats.
The Nuclear Theft From the Poor and Hungry
The father of a Syrian general killed in the civil war attends his son's funeral in Damascus in January 2012.
Syria's Islamic Movement and the 2011-12 Uprising
In this detail from a political cartoon, a caring woman whose garment reads 'liberty' symbolizes this humanitarian impulse.
Humanitarian Intervention: The American Experience from William McKinley to Barack Obama
Rendering of the new National World War I Memorial in Washington DC
It’s Time for a National World War I Memorial
Anti-Christian sign in Federal Plaza Chicago 2008
Slavery, Gay Rights, and the Bible
1864 reproduction of the Emancipation Proclamation from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Obama’s Evolving Position on Same-Sex Marriage Is Similar to Lincoln’s Evolution on Antislavery
Canada's Athabasca Glacier.
Climate, Human Population and Human Survival: What the Deep Past Tells Us about the Future
With running mate Paul Ryan in Norfolk, Virginia, during the vice presidential selection announcement on August 11, 2012
Vice Presidential Nominees Must Be Plausible As President
The statue of Saddam Hussein topples in Baghdad's Firdos Square on April 9, 2003.
A Century of U.S. Relations with Iraq
Rick Santorum at prayer, 2012
Rick Santorum and Fundamentalist Catholicism
In Senegal, a protester holds a sign rejecting "monarchy" in the form of proposed changes to the constitution which would extend the current president's term in office.
"Y'En A Marre!" (We're Fed Up!): Senegal in the Season of Discontent
Santorum speaking in Des Moines, Iowa in 2011
Rick Santorum Misunderstands Both Kennedy and Religious Pluralism
Cover of Space Travel, November 1958
Gingrich and Romney: Right and Wrong on Space Travel
The political cartoon that led to the coining of the term Gerrymander.
Re-mapping American Politics: The Redistricting Revolution Fifty Years Later
Karzai with former US President George W. Bush and wife Laura Bush at Camp David in 2007.
Keep Karzai in the Loop
Children eating a meal as part of the School Lunch program at a classroom in Maryland. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Deputy Under Secretary Dr. Janey Thornton is present for an event to launch International School Meals Day on March 8, 2013. The class is video conferencing to a school in Ayrshire, Scotland, with some of their children visible on the screens.
Today’s School Feeding Programs Grew Out of the “Penny Lunch” Tradition of a Century Ago
In the last fifty years, global agricultural practices have favored growing ever fewer varieties of high-yielding crops, leading to fears that the loss of genetic diversity in food leaves the growing human population exposed to risks of food shortages from disease, pests, and climate change.
Conserving Diversity at the Dinner Table: Plants, Food Security, and Gene Banks
U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt (left) and nature preservationist John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club, on Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park. In the background: Upper and lower Yosemite Falls.
Why Today’s Politicians Love Teddy Roosevelt
An Israeli solider stands guard on the road to Ismailia during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.
From Gaza to Jerusalem: Is the Two State Solution under Siege?
Hundreds of people who lost jobs when freezing weather hit California in January 2007 line up to register for the Disaster Unemployment Assistance program funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Down and Out (Again): America’s Long Struggle with Mass Unemployment
"Freedom From Want" - NARA poster 1943
The Spirit of 1947: This Thanksgiving Feed a Silent Guest and Build World Peace
close-up of an Eisenhower US coin
“In God We Trust” or “E Pluribus Unum”? The American Founders Preferred the Latter Motto
Oil and coal dominated U.S. energy production in the twentieth century.
Energy Policy and the Long Transition in America
An Honored Medal: 1862-1896 Version of the Medal of Honor. Army Heritage Museum Collection.
Medal of Honor Upgrades Are Rare — And Should Be Rare
Soldiers patrol the boundary between Eritrea and Ethiopia after two years of fighting in 2000.
Avoiding the Scourge of War: The Challenges of United Nations Peacekeeping
"The Magnet Citizenship" March 1917 cartoon by Henry Mayer - Moving Picture Weekly (1915-1920)
U.S. Citizenship Is Based on Principles, Not Heritage
A U.S. Coast Guard sailor stands guard over more than 40,000 pounds of Latin American cocaine seized in 2007 and valued at around $500 million.
The Shifting Terrain of Latin American Drug Trafficking
Protester opposing gay marriage in Boston, 2007. The sign compares gay rights in the U.S. to Nazi, Germany.
Gays, Nazis, and the GOP
A black and white photo of Barry Goldwater in 1962.
Rick Perry, Social Security, and the Ghost of Barry Goldwater
100 and 10 US dollars banknotes.
Inflation — Fighting the Last War
A ship moves along the Bosporus through Istanbul, part of the only sea route from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.
Outdoing Panama: Turkey’s ‘Crazy’ Plan to Build an Istanbul Canal
A girl stands amid the graves of 70 children on the outskirts of Dadaab. The long desert journey to the relief camps has claimed many lives.
Famine Strikes Again. Will America Respond?
Perry speaking at the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland.
Governor Perry’s Vice-Presidential Mistake
The United Nations Office at Geneva (Switzerland) is the second biggest UN centre, after the United Nations Headquarters (New York City).
The U.N. may be dysfunctional, but it’s the kind of dysfunction that its founders intended
A projection of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange looms over author Micah Sifry (left) and activist Daniel Ellsberg during a video conference in June 2010.
WikiLeaks, and the Past and Present of American Foreign Relations