When Screenwriters Won an Uncredited
Victory

How a Pioneering Producer Fooled the Press, Beat the Blacklist, and Made a ‘Robin Hood’ That Resonated with the Moment

In September 1955, 67 TV critics got the opportunity of a lifetime: An all-expenses paid trip to London for a week, courtesy of Johnson & Johnson and Wildroot Cream Oil.

They were there to learn about a new TV program called The Adventures of Robin Hood. The series was the first British-American co-production, and one of the very first programs available in the UK’s then-fledgling commercial television landscape. The half-hour episodes starred Richard Greene as the title character and Bernadette O’Farrell as love interest Maid Marian. It filmed at England’s historic …

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Invisible Women, Invisible Abortions, Invisible Histories

One La Jolla Family’s Story Illuminates a Persistent Gap in Our Collective Memory

In the summers of 1897 and 1898, the San Diego, Pacific Beach, and La Jolla Railroad hired “Professor” Horace Poole to provide Fourth of July weekend entertainment. The spry 20-something …

An illustration of a man on a ladder putting a book into a shelf while a man on the floor throws a book into a can fire. The shelved books are colored to look similar to the U.S. flag.

How Librarians Became American Free Speech Heroes

In the Past and Present, They’ve Fought Book Bans and Censorship

At almost 85 years old, the Library Bill of Rights is seeing another round of attacks.

The American Library Association (ALA)—founded in 1876 to professionalize and improve library services across the …

Three Generations, Two Immigrations

A Salvadoran American-Turned-Israeli Reflects on Moving Between Cultures and Finding Home, Again and Again

The first time I immigrated, 34 years ago, I was a toddler brought to the United States by my parents from our native El Salvador. A year ago, I immigrated …

Jimmy Carter’s Pragmatic Path to Power

An Idealist in and After Office, He Became a Governor and a President By Appealing to Racial and Class Prejudice

Former president Jimmy Carter, who will be 99 this Sunday, October 1, was only 46 when he first popped up on the national political radar. After declaring in his 1971 …

What the GOP Gets Wrong About the Puritans

Reagan and Pence Invoked Them as Inspiration, But a True Reckoning With Their History Provides a Different Vision of the Nation’s Future

During the first Republican presidential primary debate, on August 23, former Vice President Mike Pence spoke of founders of the nation conquering the American “wilderness.” It was one …