American Studies

Toffoli discusses the images & technologies that helped construct the Border Patrol's public image, the historical roots of today's surveillance culture along the U.S.–Mexico border, & why visual history remains essential for understanding contemporary debates over immigration & state power.

We talk with Carlos Alonso Nugent, recipient of the 2025 Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Biography Essay Prize.

"The Public Historian" commemorates the Semiquincentennial of the Declaration of Independence with a special virtual issue.