Two Pennsylvanias, One Drive, No Connections?

My Commute Into Pittsburgh Traverses the Political Divide That Defines My State

My wife and I live in a rural farming area in Western Pennsylvania. We moved here five years ago because we’re country people, and it’s only 20 minutes from where I grew up and where my mother still lives.

Here we have chickens, a big garden, and a wood-burning stove but no broadband internet, which sometimes makes it hard on my wife, who works from home.

Each week, I commute about an hour to a small liberal arts college in Pittsburgh where I specialize in U.S. labor history. When I drive to …

Why I Love the Little League World Series | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Why I Love the Little League World Series

The Flailing MLB Could Learn a Thing or Two from These Joyful Tween Athletes

This August, I haven’t been following Major League Baseball. Instead, I’ve been watching the Little League Baseball World Series on television. The event, held in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, features the 16 …

Why Don’t More Americans Remember the 1897 Massacre of Pennsylvania Coal Miners?

The Mostly Eastern European Victims Were Forgotten Because of an Ensuing Backlash Against Immigrant Workers

At the western entrance of the coal patch town of Lattimer, in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, sits a rough-cut shale boulder, about 8 feet tall, surrounded by neatly trimmed bushes. A …

Suppressing Voting Rights Is as Old as the Republic—But the Tactics Keep Changing 

Discriminatory State Constitutions, Poll and Literacy Taxes, and Now Photo ID Laws All Have Been Used to Keep Ballots From the Less Powerful 

The more that efforts to suppress voting rights in America change, the more they remain the same.

From the earliest days of the republic to the present, politicians have sought to …

The Pain Behind the Pennsylvania Primary

Trump's Working-Class Supporters Are Reeling From Job Losses, Drugs, and a Spike in Suicides

What’s driving disaffected voters to political outsiders like Donald Trump? One big factor is America’s abandonment of labor-intensive manufacturing, and its rush toward a hi-tech, eco-friendly, creative economy that excludes …