Power

Lazy assumptions about young and old cloud our politics.

In The Loud Minority, Daniel Gillion examines the relationship between electoral politics and protest movements.

The United States has a terrible habit of letting white supremacy get away with repeated attempts to murder American democracy.

How a decades-long movement helped the far-right fringe gain control of the GOP.

A conversation with presidential biographers Jonathan Alter and Kai Bird.

American innocence, the possession of history, and January 6, 2021.

A concept that took hold in the ’70s has haunted everything from seat belts to masks—and experts won't let it die.

Are the truths in the Declaration of Independence really self-evident?

Each time political minorities advocate for and achieve greater equality, conservatives rebel, trying to force a reinstatement of the status quo.

The U.S. managed to pay for a child care program during the most expensive war ever. What happened?

For decades, U.S. cities have been closing or neglecting public restrooms, leaving millions with no place to go.

Florida’s move to silence expert criticism of its disenfranchisement campaign echoes its Redemption-era assault on civil rights.

Why Democrats have struggled to implement their agenda.

An underexamined aspect of Manchin’s pro-business positions in the Senate is his early membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council.

We keep trying to assess schools quantitatively instead of grappling with some deeper problems.

From My Lai to Desert Storm to WMDs.

Drawing analogies between industries can be instructive. But only if we do it right.

History books remember Yorktown as a "victory for the right of self-determination." But the battle guaranteed slavery for nearly another century.

A short history of a made-up constitutional doctrine that gives presidents too much power.

Both parties play the redistricting game, redrawing electoral boundaries to lock down power.

The right’s facile comparisons of the two presidents miss the vastly different circumstances facing Biden and distort Carter’s record.

Even when the president’s party passes historic legislation, voters don’t seem to care.

Hannah Arendt holds firm during the McCarthy era.

The Constitution meant for Congress to pass bills by a simple majority. But the process has changed over the decades.

The U.S. Constitution was the reason for Madison and Hamilton's breakup.

The veneration of the Constitution is directly connected to America’s emergence as global hegemon.

Trump tried to exploit flaws that were embedded in the law from the start.

Policies dating to the 1930s have helped shape the conflict defining today’s politics.

In his new book, The Crooked Path to Abolition, James Oakes argues that the Constitution was an antislavery document.

Repression, mediation, and division of Black resistance from 1906 to the 2020 George Floyd Uprising.