Exhibits

Exhibit

Federal Bureaucracy

The federal government is the nation’s biggest employer. To many, its size is a problem in itself. This exhibit asks: how big is too big, and what do we miss when we focus on size alone?

Exhibit

Social Safety Net

How Americans through the years have approached the thorny questions of identifying who the government is obliged to help and how such assistance should be funded and distributed.

Jimmy Carter speaking during his presidential campaign in 1976.
Exhibit

Legacies of Jimmy Carter

Historical reappraisals of Carter's legacies in foreign relations, the economy, the environment, and electoral politics.

Exhibit

Trumpism

A presidency often referred to as "unprecedented" has deep roots in American history.

Exhibit

Voting Rights: A Retrospective

Voting, a right not initially enshrined in the Constitution, has been secured, revoked, and contested since the nation's founding era.

Know-Nothing flag
Exhibit

The Many Faces of Nativism

As this exhibit shows, anti-immigrant sentiment has been a throughline of American history.

Exhibit

A Big Tent

Exploring the history of the Democratic Party, from its earliest days through the New Deal, the Long Sixties, and the post-Cold War era.

Declaration of Independence (1819), by John Trumbull
Exhibit

Declaring Independence

A collection of resources about the meanings of the 1776 document in its own time – and in ours.

Exhibit

President Precedents

How Americans understand the powers of the office and the legacies of past leaders.

Exhibit

“All Persons Born or Naturalized in the United States...”

A collection of resources exploring the evolving meanings of American citizenship and how they have been applied -- or denied -- to different groups of Americans.

Exhibit

American Corruption

The constant tug of war between those who try to bend government for their own gain and those who try to root out corruption and reform the system.

Voter with mask
Exhibit

Election of 2020

A look back at what historians have had to say about this epic contest over the nation's future.

James Madison behind a swirling pattern.

Musk’s Madisonian Insight—And Its Troubling Consequences

DOGE's seizure of government databases is not just an act of bureaucratic reorganization. It is an act of constitutional restructuring.
Joe McCarthy pointing to a map, while Joseph Welch looks dismayed.

Like Joe McCarthy, I Enjoy a Good Dossier

Diplomatic relations, domestic repression. Plus: the truth about Joseph Welch, and a bit of family history.
Trump at the National Archives.

The Nation’s Archivist Should Not Be Political

Trump’s clumsy partisan takeover of the National Archives and Records Administration recalls two consequential and troubling episodes from its history.
Airplane tail with a bar code on it.

Who Gave Away the Skies to the Airlines?

In 1978, Jimmy Carter signed the Airline Deregulation Act. It gave rise to some truly miserable air travel—and neoliberalism.

How the Red Scare Reshaped American Politics

At its height, the political crackdown felt terrifying and all-encompassing. What can we learn from how the movement unfolded—and from how it came to an end?
A hand made into a fist is camouflaged against the American flag.

The Dark Parallels Between 1920s America and Today’s Political Climate

The early 1920s in the US offers historical lessons on how current pessimism about the state of the country can manifest in dangerous, discriminatory ways.

George Washington Knew the Difference Between Running a Business and Running the Government

The first businessman president realized that working with Congress – not alone or against it – was the best way to create an efficient federal government.
A statue of Andrew Jackson riding a horse outside of the White House.

Before Trump, This President ‘Paralyzed’ Washington with Cuts

Andrew Jackson set the standard for the most tumultuous presidential term ever — at least until now.
Donald Trump with a crown on his head.

Donald Trump Is Trying to Take American Law Back to 1641

Understand that if Trump succeeds the result will not be the harmless resurrection of a quaint jurisprudential artifact.
Thaddeus Stevens
partner

Thaddeus Stevens and the Power of the Purse

The Radical Republican oversaw federal spending at the dawn of Reconstruction. How did his support for Black equality affect his leadership in the House?
A rally for civil rights outside of the 1964 Republican National Convention.
partner

“A Party for the White Man”

The scene at the 1964 Republican National Convention, when Barry Goldwater was nominated and black Republicans’ worst fears about their party were confirmed.
Dark, distorted painting of the American Revolution.

Tracing America’s Obsession With Conspiracy Theories Back to Its Founding

The revolutionary roots of a corrosive national pastime.
"Made in U.S.A." sticker

The Return of Political Economic Nationalism

The populist turn in our politics is best understood as a revival of old categories of political economy.
U.S. President Donald Trump looks at an executive order in the Oval Office.

Are Trump's Actions 'Unprecedented'? Here's What Seven Historians Say

Trump's second administration is 'unprecedented' to some, but historians find parallels in ancient Rome, Nazi Germany, and Latin American dictatorship.
Sam Francis.

The Sam Francis I Knew

The late conservative thinker, who died 20 years ago Saturday, has transcended the pariah status imposed on him during his life.
President Franklin Roosevelt, seated with the CCC.

A Constitutional Rule on Federal Spending

USAID grants may have cracked constitutional spending limits.
Trump and Reagan depicted as two halves of the same face.

The Dark Legacy of Reaganism

Conservatives might be tempted to hold up Reagan as representative of a nobler era. They’d be wrong.
Soldier at the US-Mexico border.

Trump’s Doubly Flawed "Invasion" Theory

How Trump's migration-as-invasion theory might serve as a pretext for claiming vast presidential powers and upending constitutional norms.
"Rip Van Winkle Awaking from His Long Sleep," painting by Henry Inman (1823).

Bewilderment as a Way of Understanding America’s Present – and Past

Circumstances in which people are feeling extreme disorientation are potent breeding grounds for people who are willing to exploit it in moments of crisis.
A magnifying glass and Francis Fukuyama's book "The End of History and the Last Man."

Francis Fukuyama Was Right About Liberal Democracy

For all of its faults and weaknesses, no serious competitor has emerged to capture people’s imagination or seriously challenge it.
Portrait of Abraham Lincoln, 1858.

A Constitutionalist or a Revolutionist?

Which one was Abraham Lincoln?

George Washington Cut Six Sentences From His Farewell Address. They’re Haunting Me Now.

“The conflicts of popular factions are the chief, if not the only inlets, of usurpation and Tyranny,” the first president wrote.
Border Patrol agents stand watch along a barrier.

Mass Deportations Are an American Tradition

Past presidents showed that removing millions of illegal aliens is achievable.
Donald Trump holding up a fist.

The Man Madison Warned Us Against

He authored the Constitution to forestall the rise of a despotic president. We’ll soon see if those safeguards suffice.
Silhouettes of Energy Secretary Chris Wright, President Donald Trump, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in the Oval Office in the dark.

The Making of Emergencies

For centuries, theorists of liberal governance have worried about how emergencies can unfetter executive power. Trump has given those fears new urgency.
Two ionic columns winding around each other

How Progressives Broke the Government

Democrats’ cultural aversion to power has cleaved an opening for Trump.
Document stamped "classified."

Trump Breaks Washington’s Secrecy Addiction

The president is right to release the Kennedy files.
Zombie hand reaching up from the ground in a graveyard.

The Dead Hand of Clintonism

More than 20 years after Bill Clinton left office, Democrats remain in the grips of his New Democrat politics. That’s a serious problem.
Charles J. Guiteau.

How Civil Service Protections Emerged After James Garfield’s Assassination

Reformers in the Republican Party had been calling for a professional, merit-based civil service since shortly after the Civil War.
Purse in the style of the American flag.

The Power of the Purse

The first time a president withheld funds for something approved by Congress, it led to the Impoundment Control Act. We’ll soon find out if that law has teeth.