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In this essay, the author unpacks the original definition for "savage" from the 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language, explaining the ironic vantage point through which settlers viewed Native Americans.

In this essay, the author identifies vague terminology used by the United States government during World War II to describe their actions toward Japanese Americans and outlines terms that would more appropriately describe the government's actions.

In this essay, the author draws parallels between the "witch hunts" experienced in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts and in 1950 in the U.S. government at U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy's urgings.

“The Irish and the English share a long legacy of conflict.” And this conflict extended across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World as a wave of Catholic immigrants arrived in the United States in the 1820s.

“When Mormons settled in Missouri in the 1830s, local residents found Mormon beliefs and practices not simply strange, but wrong. … The Mormons, the Missouri governor declared, must be removed—if not by expulsion, then by extermination.”

In this essay, the author gives a short history of race riots, showing how they were originally organized by whites in an effort to show dominance over African Americans, particularly in the South.

This chapter details the Chinese involvement in building the transcontinental railroad and the friction it caused between them and white workers, whom Chinese workers displaced from their jobs due to their willingness to work for less and not join labor unions.

In 1830, the government began systematically removing all Native Americans from the Eastern United States. The removal of Cherokees from Georgia in 1838 has become known as the Trail of Tears. But there were, in fact, many such trails, as the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles and other tribes were forced to abandon their homelands.