Anna Diamond

Anna Diamond is the former assistant editor for Smithsonian magazine.

Does the Same Goose Always Lead the Flying V and More Questions From Our Readers

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Madeline Pollard as she appeared during the five-week trial in the spring of 1894. Her entanglement with Col. Breckenridge made national headlines.

The Court Case That Inspired the Gilded Age’s #MeToo Moment

A turn-of-the-century trial, the focus of a new book, took aim at the Victorian double standard

Laima Vince in Lithuania in July 2018

The Translator Who Brought a Lost Jewish Poet’s Words to the English-Speaking World

Raised in the U.S. but a lifelong speaker of Lithuanian, Laima Vince became enamored of Matilda Olkin’s writing

What Would Happen if the Earth Stopped Rotating? and More Questions From our Readers

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German-Americans rally in New York in support of the Nazis in a news clipping from the Shamokin News-Dispatch

The Original Meanings of the “American Dream” and “America First” Were Starkly Different From How We Use Them Today

A new book from historian Sarah Churchwell examines the etymologies of two ubiquitous phrases

Southern Chivalry – Argument versus Club's, John L. Magee

Before the Civil War, Congress Was a Hotbed of Violence

A new book from historian Joanne Freeman chronicles the viciousness with which elected officials treated each other

Could Lava Incinerate Trash and More Questions From Our Readers

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Do Marine Mammals Yawn and More Questions From Our Readers

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Standing Rock #2: Oil-pipeline protester Mychal Thompson in North Dakota, in November 2016. Her quote, in Navajo, reads, “To be of the people means you must have reverence and love for all of the resources and all of the beauties of this world.”

Pushed to the Margins, These Brave People Are Pushing Back

From the American West to the Middle East, the powerless face stark choices when confronted by the powerful

The Russian Imperial Family on the steps of the Catherine Palace

A Century Ago, the Romanovs Met a Gruesome End

Helen Rappaport’s new book investigates if the family could have been saved

How Come U.S. Currency Never Changes Its Face and More Questions From Our Readers

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Annual forest fires blaze on the floor of Yosemite Valley, California in 2015.

What Is the Future of Fire?

Geologist Andrew C. Scott reconstructs the sites of past blazes to look at our relationship with this elusive element

Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston's 'Barracoon' Tells the Story of the Slave Trade's Last Survivor

Published eight decades after it was written, the new book offers a first-hand account of a Middle Passage journey

What's the Difference Between Moths and Butterflies and More Questions From Our Readers

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Civil rights leader Rev. Ralph Abernathy, in short sleeves, leads the Poor People's March to the edge of the grounds of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, June 24, 1968. Abernathy and his followers from Resurrection City marched to the Agriculture Department and then to the Capitol.

Remembering Resurrection City and the Poor People's Campaign of 1968

Lenneal Henderson and thousands of other protesters occupied the National Mall for 42 days during the landmark civil rights protest

Dorothy Parker at a typewriter in 1941

Writing in the Public Eye, These Women Brought the 20th Century Into Focus

Michelle Dean’s new book looks at the intellects who cut through the male-dominated public conversation

Why Don't We See Fireflies in the Western U.S.?

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Who Was the First First Lady to Adopt a Cause and More Questions From Our Readers

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When news of Tennessee’s ratification reached Alice Paul on August 18, she sewed the thirty-sixth star onto her ratification banner and unfurled it from the balcony of Woman’s Party headquarters in Washington.

How Tennessee Became the Final Battleground in the Fight for Suffrage

One hundred years later, the campaign for the women’s vote has many potent similarities to the politics of today

Dale Messick, creator of the comic strip "Brenda Starr," looks up from some of her strips in her studio in her Chicago apartment in 1975.

How Women Broke Into the Male-Dominated World of Cartoons and Illustrations

A new exhibition at the Library of Congress highlights female artists and their contributions to comic strips, magazine covers and political cartoons

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