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The slave Dred Scott claimed that his residence in a free state transformed him into a free man. When the Court decided otherwise,...

Homer Plessy—a man of seven-eighths Caucasian descent and one-eighth African descent who was nevertheless considered black under Louisiana law—boar...

When police in Ohio raided Dollree Mapp’s home looking for evidence in a bombing, all they found were some “lascivious books.” Mapp appealed her porno...

Author-educator Herbert Alan Johnson explains how a lawsuit over a steamboat monopoly ultimately led to Congress gaining the power to...

Few Supreme Court decisions have stirred up as much controversy, vitriolic debate, and even violence as 1973’s Roe v. Wade, which affirmed a woman’...

Author Wade Sisson discusses the Titanic’s sister ship, the R.M.S. Olympic, which steamed 300 miles in a desperate...

Urban planner Joe Minicozzi looks at the “math” of effective city building, i.e., the financial implications of land use decisions in municipalities l...

Urban designer Jim Kumon looks at the resurgence of small-scale urban neighborhoods in Los Angeles, Denver, and Minneapolis, among other cities, and h...

Chuck Marohn, founder of the nonprofit Strong Towns, launches the Making a Great City series with a critical look at how we build our cities and towns...

Nationally renowned urban thinker Chuck Marohn, who kicked off the Library’s Making a Great City series in January 2018, returns to assess the crucial...