Great moments in U.S. History.

200 years ago, the Marquis de Lafayette arrived in America for a year-long farewell tour, sparking a Beatlemania-like frenzy I wrote about America's top "Lafayette," & the odd business of being everyone's favorite fighting Frenchman for a living nytimes.com/2024/08/15/art…

Very nice Jennifer Schuessler piece on my favorite magazine, Commonweal Magazine “The commitments of Catholicism don’t line up very neatly on contemporary politics,” Dorothy Fortenberry said. “At its best, the magazine can create space for ideas to bounce around.” nytimes.com/2024/10/28/art…

One of Biden's last, lesser noticed actions on the way out the door: Signing legislation that will create the Women’s Suffrage National Monument on the Mall, the first on Washington's national space honoring women and their history. Jennifer Schuessler nytimes.com/2025/01/20/art…

Live from the archives, it's Saturday Night? Spent a few days looking through the Lorne Michaels/SNL collection, just donated to the ransomcenter 700+ boxes of scripts, notes, photos, memos, fan mail, hate mail (incl some written on... toilet paper?) nytimes.com/interactive/20…

NEW: The Carter Library in Atlanta abruptly cancelled 3 book events relating to civil rights, climate change & homelessness, because of what authors were told was a requirement that all events, even already planned, be approved by the National Archives nytimes.com/2025/02/22/art…

NEW: Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities Leaves at Trump's "Direction" nytimes.com/2025/03/12/art…

Terrific piece by Jennifer Schuessler about finding understanding in our disagreements. Excited to visit Monticello this July 4 to talk about the meaning of The American Revolution, our next film coming to PBS this November.

On Memorial Day, I always think of this inscription on a British grave from WWI: “If love could have saved him he would not have died.”

A lovely piece by Jennifer Schuessler about the landmark significance of the SchomburgCenter (turning 100 this year!) as a home for Black history and culture nytimes.com/2025/06/12/art…