Read: Articles from Origins

Exterior view of the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India,
The Bhopal Chemical Gas Disaster

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
War News from Mexico (1848).
“Hostilities” and War Powers: Let’s Choose the Constitution
Visitors stroll the first section of the High Line Park, over the 18th Street crossing. Frank Gehry's IAC building is in the background.
The High Line: It’s About the Real Estate
Protesters demonstrate against nuclear power and a storage facility at Rokkasho following the March 2011 disaster at Japan's Fukushima I power plant, the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl (1986).
'The Energy of a Bright Tomorrow': The Rise of Nuclear Power in Japan
The Prairie Dog is an anti-Jefferson satire, relating to Jefferson's covert negotiations for the purchase of West Florida from Spain in 1804.
Not American Enough? This Political Slur Has a Long History
Lydia Vargo and Teamster with delivery wagon in Toledo, Ohio c. 1920.
The National Park Service Explores the History of Farm Labor in America
President Jimmy Carter offers a toast to Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi, calling Iran 'an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world.'
Frenemies: Iran and America since 1900
Contrabands—fugitive slaves—cooks, laundresses, laborers, teamsters, railroad repair crews—fled to the Union Army, but were not officially freed until 1863 by the Emancipation Proclamation.
In Commemorating the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War, the Central Role of Slavery Must Not Be Forgotten
“Bombardment of Fort Sumter by the batteries of the Confederate states,” 1861.
The Civil War: Losing the War, Winning the History
Gemini 4 astronaut Ed White in open space, 1965.
Human Spaceflight Began Fifty Years Ago This Month, But Not Much Has Happened Lately
Fox News commentator and Tea Party favorite Glenn Beck addresses supporters at his "Restoring Honor" rally in Washington, D.C. on August 28, 2010.
American Populism and the Persistence of the Paranoid Style
The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Barry (DDG 52) launches a Tomahawk missile in support of Operation Odyssey Dawn on March 19, 2011.
What Can Air Power Achieve? From Rolling Thunder to Odyssey Dawn
A 1900 poster shows President William McKinley campaigning for the maintenance of a gold standard for the dollar, which he said gave Americans prosperity and prestige.
Currency Wars, or Why You Should Care About the Global Struggle Over the Value of Money
Demonstrators in steadily falling snow outside of the Wisconsin Capitol building.
Wisconsin: A History of Leading the Nation for Better or Worse
Philippoteaux - Lamartine in front of the Town Hall of Paris rejects the red flag.
The Challenges of 1848 Reprised in the Middle East Today
Members of the Free Officers welcomed by crowds in Cairo in January 1953.
The Egyptian Middle Class Is Disgruntled. Again.