Power

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

In early America, the soaring ideals behind establishing a new democracy were marked by cycles of progress and backlash.

What might appear to be common values about shared identities can serve not as a bridge but a wedge.

When viewing federal authority as a bulwark for civil rights against local tyranny, we miss what the U.S. government has done to sustain white freedom.

Excluding him, wrongfully, by a close vote of the Supreme Court could well trigger the next Civil War.

After Congress robbed Washingtonians of local and federal representation, decades of activism -- slowed by racist opposition -- finally succeeded in 1973.

Politicians have often sought to remedy educational panic with remedies that do more harm than good.

The prominence of politicos-turned-pundits is a product of cable news' turn to opinion commentary as a cheap and easy way to meet the needs of 24/7 coverage.

While many Americans gushed about the effectiveness of the ‘Destruction of the Tea,’ others thought it went too far.

For 70 years, the U.S. has failed to achieve faster trains—because it refuses to do what it takes to make them work.

Bayard Rustin tried to forge a mass coalition to deliver progressive change. His failure to do so in the 1960s tells us much about building one today.

The U.S. sought to rebrand nuclear power as a source of peace, but this message helped mask a violent history.

For decades, Kissinger kept the great wheel of American militarism spinning ever forward.

He was the only person ever to be national security adviser and secretary of state at the same time. He was also the target of relentless critics.

Jeremy Workman and Robert Lyons’s film reconstructs the passage of a 1970 law that made the state a sanctuary for people seeking abortions.

The mistress of JFK, there was a lot more than wealth, whiteness, and femininity to make Mary Pinchot Meyer a target of murder.

Vivek Ramaswamy says he wants to "make hard work cool again." He isn’t the first.

In the early 1970s, the idea that private life meant a right to be left alone – an idea forged over centuries – began to disappear. We should mourn its absence.

The back-and-forth life of Confederate James Longstreet.

Government shutdowns only became possible in 1980, when the Attorney General offered a new interpretation of an 1870 law.

Debates about handling Confederates reveal that the 14th Amendment bars unrepentant insurrectionists from office.

On the 14th amendment – and if it might stop Trump.

A discussion on the difficulty of keeping faith in a foundationally anti-Black republic.

The effects of the 1991 mass shooting at a Luby's in Killeen can still be felt today—in the legislature and on our streets.

A treaty commitment to seat a delegate representing the Cherokee Nation in the House has gone unmet for two centuries.

In 1866, the famous abolitionist laid out his vision for radically reshaping America in the pages of "The Atlantic."

James Longstreet became a champion of Reconstruction. Why?

Freedpeople and their advocates persuaded the nation to embrace schooling for all.

In 1840, William Henry Harrison was mocked for his presidential run at age 67 — 15 years younger than President Biden would be at the start of a second term.

The G.I. Bill created a prosperous middle class that was altogether too white.