BackStory

Grave Matters: A History of Death and Mourning

On Memorial Day we ask — how have we lived with the dead throughout American history? Have improvements in public health and medicine made death less a part of our everyday lives?

The Good Mother: A History of American Motherhood

For most of American history, women were charged with raising productive citizens, but not given full citizen status, themselves. Our Mother’s Day episode explores this enduring paradox.

American as Pumpkin Pie: A History of Thanksgiving

When we sit down to Thanksgiving dinner, we think we know what we’re commemorating. But if an actual Pilgrim were to attend your Thanksgiving, chances are he’d be stunned, and a little disgusted, by what transpired there.