Bruce Kaplan

About the Author

Bruce Kaplan is a Boston-based transportation planner and independent scholar.

Author Archive Page

Rear view of the Bath Consolidated School after the bombing on May 18, 1927, Wikimedia Commons.

The School Massacre that Shocked Bath, Michigan

May 18, 2018By Bruce Kaplan

The chilling tale of a tragedy that was seemingly erased from the American consciousness

Continue Reading »

Sultana carrying paroled Union prisoners at Helena, AR one day before she was destroyed, Wikimedia Commons

Remembering the Sultana Explosion

April 27, 2018By Bruce Kaplan

The worst maritime disaster in American history

Continue Reading »

Group of young white men turn a car on its side during Detroit riots of 1943

Rioting: An American Tradition

Looking at the rioters in Baltimore, or any other place, in isolation misses the point.

Gate_House,_Cemetery,_Gettysburg

The Story of America in Twelve Cemeteries

Our Past is Written in Stone

Julia Ward Howe

Mother’s Day or Mothers’ Day

Mothers’ Day did not start as a way to encourage people to be nice to their mothers, but as an impassioned effort by women to end war forever.

The Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862

Exploring an important step toward the abolition of slavery in the United States

Bruce Gillers - October 13, 2021:
The Boy Scout Council in Chinle Arizona was the name of the [...]

Carolyn Marvin - February 11, 2021:
Example: no proof of any silk dress...part of the poem written later. [...]

KateThomas - December 8, 2020:
Thank you. This has given me a greater insight into the historian [...]

Michael C. Lucas - August 5, 2020:
The American Government did not make a deal for Forty Acres and [...]