Woodrow Wilson working at his desk on May 1, 1917.

Don’t Be So Quick to Laud Woodrow Wilson

An effort is underway to restore President Wilson’s reputation as a great reformer. His best reforms were won by a mass movement, often pushing against Wilson.
A painting of a farmer holding a hoe behind his back in an open field.

Eyes on the Farm Bill!

Congress’s periodic battles over the Farm Bill often pass unnoticed, but the document effectively determines what, how, and how much we eat.
Ordinance from the 1866 Texas Constitution, renouncing Texas's claim to secession and declaring future attempts null and void.

Secession on the Ballot This Week ... Almost

A measure almost made the Republican Party’s 2024 Texas primary ballot to measure whether party members would support secession from the United States.
Photo of Joe Biden in front of photos of Lyndon Johnson and Harry Truman.

Other Presidents Have Retired in March of Their Reelection Year

But it didn’t work out for their parties.
Joe Biden and George W. Bush.

Biden Is Repeating Bush’s Post-9/11 Playbook. It’s Not Working.

Like his predecessor, the president is decrying anti-Arab and Muslim hatred while helping fuel it. People are refusing to let him get away with this hypocrisy.
Map of New York state from 1813
partner

Suppressing the Black Vote in 1811

As more Black men gained the right to vote in New York, the state began to change its laws to reduce their power or disenfranchise them completely.
U.S. Supreme Court building.
partner

Why History Supports the EPA's 'Good Neighbor' Rules

The Supreme Court is hearing arguments about the rule, but Congress originally intended to prioritize public health.
Mary A. Hallern sitting in her military uniform.

The Little Colonel That Could: Mary Hallaren and the Fight for Women in the Military

After World War II ended, government and military leaders were ready to return women to their domestic roles. But one woman had other ideas.
Illustration of immigrants on a boat looking at the Statue of Liberty
partner

Birth of A National Immigration Policy

Until the Civil War, regulating immigration to the US was left to individual states. That changed with Emancipation and the legal end of slavery.
A herd of caribou walking across a field.
partner

Denying Science to Drill for Oil is a Decades-long Tradition

What the debate about the Arctic Refuge tells us about science denialism.
Black and white image of Abraham Lincoln, with the edges of his face out of focus.

No Slaves, No Masters: What Democracy Meant to Abraham Lincoln

A detailed look on Abraham Lincoln's political philosophy on slavery, ownership, and freedom.
Picture of William Belknap sitting in a chair.
partner

Mayorkas Almost Became the Second Cabinet Member Impeached. The First Was a Civil War Hero.

Belknap’s downfall was his decision to abuse his authority to appoint “sutlers” or civilian merchants who ran trading posts that served military outposts.
partner

NIMBYs and YIMBYs Have More in Common Than It Might Seem

NIMBYs were citizen activists who set a model for participatory democracy that YIMBYs should follow.
Woodrow Wilson.

Woodrow Wilson Should Stay Canceled

The 28th President of the United States enabled segregation and vile treatment of Black federal workers. He doesn’t deserve an image rehabilitation.
Men in suits, suburban neighborhood, woman holding a microphone, and a quarry.

The ‘Southern Lady’ Who Beat the Courthouse Crowd

One woman’s crusade for democratic participation and political efficacy in the face of powerful institutions.
A federal agent cutting down razor wire on the border between the United States and Mexico

No, Nikki Haley, the Constitution Does Not Say That

Secession, like its cousin nullification, rests on a mistaken conception of the American union.
Confrontation between a member of the DC Metropolitan Police and an insurrectionist on January 6 wearing a Make America Great Again hat

If It Walks Like an Insurrection and Talks Like an Insurrection…

Trump has no rightful place in the leadership of the American Republic.
Donald Trump in Alabama.
partner

To Understand Trump's Appeal, Look to Alabama History

The transformation of Alabama politics in the 1960s and 1970s reflected the rise of a new version of Republicanism that Trump has perfected.
A sign left behind by Trump supporters at a rally outside the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, September 27, 2023.

American Fascism

On how Europe’s interwar period informs the present.
Collage of Heather Cox Richardson and the subjects of her book -- FDR, Lincoln, and Trump.

We Have No Princes: Heather Cox Richardson and the Battle over American History

One interpretation presents the country as irredeemably tainted by its past. Another contends that the United States has also tended toward egalitarianism.
Obama, Reagan, Trump, George W Bush, and Biden

Things Fall Apart: How the Middle Ground on Immigration Collapsed

Politicians from both sides used to agree on immigration policy. What happened?
Japanese Americans stand in a line next to a train car, as U.S. military look on

The New Deal's Dark Underbelly

David Beito has penned one of the most damning scholarly histories of FDR to date.
Rioters at January 6 insurrection

Letting Trump Off the Hook Would Change the Shape of History

Jan. 6 cannot go down the memory hole.
‘View of Grave Creek Mound’; engraving by Ebenezer Mathers, 1839.

The Plunder and the Pity

Alicia Puglionesi explores the damage white supremacy did to Native Americans and their land.
Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin during the Cold War.

The Book of Liberal Maladies

On Samuel Moyn's Cold War liberalism.
A supporter of Donald Trump holds a Confederate flag inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after the crowd breached the building as Congress was proceeding with the electoral vote certification of the 2020 presidential election.

Trump's 'Lost Cause,' a Kind of Gangster Cult, Won't Go Away

Lost cause narratives sometimes have been powerful enough to build or destroy political regimes. They can advance a politics of grievance.
Claudine Gay.

First They Came for Harvard

The right’s long and all-too-unanswered war on liberal institutions claims a big one.
Children in a kindergarten classroom at the Horace Mann School, Tulsa, Okla., 1917.
partner

Yes, Schools Should Teach Morality. But Whose Morals?

Belief that schools must teach moral values is older than public schools themselves. But whose morals?
Nikki Haley, 2023.

Nikki Haley's Slavery Omission Typifies the GOP's Tragic Pact with White Supremacy

How the Southern Strategy of the late 20th century gave rise to the modern GOP.
Mirror images of General James Longstreet.

How a Die-Hard Confederate General Became a Civil Rights–Supporting Republican

James Longstreet became an apostate for supporting black civil rights during Reconstruction.