Recent studies have found that as of May 2015, 13.8 percent of millennials (aged 18 to 29) don’t have jobs. This is significantly higher than the national average of 5.4 percent. Many more millennials are underemployed. “The conditions of unemployment and job security are changing dramatically,” said Peter Onuf, co-host of BackStory and history professor […]
In September of 1848, Frederick Douglass wrote to his former slave master, Thomas Auld. The open letter, which was also published in Douglass’s newspaper “The North Star,” talked about his life since his escape and inquired about the welfare of his sisters and grandmother. Douglass thought the women were still in Auld’s possession and […]
Recently, BackStory co-host Brian Balogh moderated a panel of Hollywood insiders and a fellow academic in a Google hangout discussing inclusion in the film industry. Rather than focus solely on racial issues, the group sought to shed light on issues impacting multiple minority communities in cinema – from the early years through today – […]
In the Oscar-nominated film, The Revenant, Leonardo DiCaprio portrays Hugh Glass, an American fur trader. In the movie, we see flashbacks of an attack on a Native American settlement. Glass’s Pawnee wife and family, inhabitants of the Great Plains, die in the onslaught, leaving Glass the sole caretaker of their son, Hawk. Fast-forward to 1823 […]
Americans have such a unique lifestyle, we’ve given it a name: The American Way. The concept is deeply embedded in our collective identity. We bristle when others attack it and we lament its potential disappearance. Even our military swears to protect the American way of life. The American lifestyle is frequently criticized by […]
In preparation for our episode on “Trial-Watching,” we asked the Guys, BackStory producers, and some of our other favorite historians to choose a trial that defined the century that they study. Here are their top picks for trials that influenced the American public, media, and courts in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. The […]
A beautiful young woman is seen frequently in the company of a young man who lives in her building. According to her neighbors, the sounds coming from her room also indicate a sexual relationship between the two. She tells her family and friends that they plan to marry. On a December night, the same […]
In 1901, on a January afternoon, New York City undertakers buried the body of Murray Hall, a fixture in local politics. One bookseller who knew Hall described him as “distinctively masculine,” if somewhat effeminate. Others remembered Hall as a man who liked cigars, poker, and good-looking women. But Hall was buried in women’s clothing. Born […]
The largest jackpot in PowerBall history got a lot larger when no one selected the winning numbers again on Saturday night, and the nation’s lottery fever continues. The jackpot now stands at an estimated $1.3B, and as Americans gear up for the next round on Wednesday, it’s hard not to wonder how this all […]