History

'Ain't Got No Home': Why Woody Guthrie Despised Donald Trump's Father

5:18pm January 22, 2016

Will Kaufman, a professor of American literature and culture at the University of Central Lancashire, says he has discovered unpublished lyrics by Woody Guthrie, in which the folk singer denounced Fred Trump, Donald's father. The elder Trump happened to be Guthrie's landlord in the early 1950s.

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Katerina Maylock teaches a college test preparation class at Holton Arms School in Bethesda, Md. The current version of the SAT college entrance exam is having its final run, when thousands of students nationwide will sit, squirm or stress through the nea

A History Of The SAT In 4 Questions

5:05pm January 22, 2016

The SAT has gone through big changes since 1926. The test reflects the nation's biases and times. Here's our subjective tour of the exam's history — in four questions.

A history actor/interpreter at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.

National

American History Lives: A Story Of The People, By The People, For The People

3:32pm January 21, 2016

by Linton Weeks

All across the country, people are recreating, reinterpreting, acting out history in some way. These living historians remember the past – and they don't mind repeating it.

Dr. Hans Asperger with a young boy at the Children's Clinic at the University of Vienna in the 1930s.

Was Dr. Asperger A Nazi? The Question Still Haunts Autism

2:43pm January 20, 2016

by Steve Silberman

Hans Asperger identified autism as a spectrum of disorders in the 1930s, but his work was ignored for decades because he went on to work under the Nazis. Research and treatment suffered as a result.

In researching their book, Caren Zucker and John Donvan tracked down Donald Gray Triplett (center), the first person officially diagnosed with autism. Now in his 80s, Triplett has had a long, happy life, Donvan says, maybe partly because his hometown embr

'In A Different Key' Traces History And Politics Of Autism

2:13pm January 20, 2016

by NPR Staff

Authors John Donvan and Caren Zucker say parents have been "unsung heroes" in spurring more research on autism, and in getting many more kids out of institutions and into schools.

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First Mention: Pac-Man

6:36pm January 19, 2016

NPR's feature "First Mention" goes back to 1981 to find an early reference to the game Pac-Man.

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Science
Arts

Aztec Gold: Watch The History And Science Of Popcorn

5:11pm January 19, 2016

by Adam Cole

Popcorn has been around at least 4,000 years. The Aztecs even had a word for the sound of kernels popping — totopoca. On National Popcorn Day, ponder the story of this beloved snack.

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Amigo Bob Cantisano and his partners believe these chestnuts come from a Marron de Lyon tree, originally from France. He thinks the tree was one of many varieties of fruit, grape and nut plants introduced into California by Felix Gillet, a French nurserym

National

In California, A Treasure Hunt For Gold Rush-Era Fruit And Nut Trees

2:39pm January 19, 2016

by Lisa Morehouse

The search is on for heirloom varieties planted at homesteads and coach stops in the late 1800s. The resilient trees, still productive despite long neglect, could prove valuable at a time of drought.

A Birthday Cake for Washington has been the subject of much criticism because it portrays slaves as being happy.

Amid Controversy, Scholastic Pulls Picture Book About Washington's Slave

2:50pm January 18, 2016

by Eyder Peralta

The book tells the story of Hercules, a slave who President George Washington used as a chef. The book shows Hercules and his daughter happy and taking pride in making Washington a birthday cake.

Cover detail from William Grimes' narrative.

Books
Arts

When Ancestry Search Led To Escaped Slave: 'All I Could Do Was Weep'

1:49pm January 18, 2016

Regina Mason's great-great-great-grandfather, a man named William Grimes, was a runaway slave and the author of what is now considered to be the first fugitive slave narrative.

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