Henry Wallace.

The Past and Future of the Left in the Democratic Party

Centrist Democrats who blamed the left for election losses would do well to remember the people who have fought for and shaped the party’s history.

How Did the GOP Become the Party of Ideas?

If Trump was the end of the “party of ideas,” the rise of Reagan was its start. But what were those “ideas” in the first place, and were they really as new as people said?
Comic with Donald Trump at the head of a White House conference room.

The End of the Businessman President

Donald Trump’s catastrophic tenure will be the nail in the coffin of the worst idea in politics: that the government can be run like a corporation.
a stadium full of people

McCarthyism Was Never Defeated. Trumpism Won’t Be Either.

Censure brought down a crusading anti-communist senator but fired up his followers.
Donald Trump speaks with reporters on Thanksgiving, November 26th, 2020.

“Almost the Complete Opposite of Fascism”

A conversation with Corey Robin on the surprisingly weak presidency of Donald Trump.
Drawing of teacher colored red in front of blackboard, teaching two students sitting in desks

Did Communists Really Infiltrate American Schools?

Fears that teachers were indoctrinating kids were rampant in the 1950s. But the reality was more complicated.
Painting of “Polling Day” in Pennsylvania in the Colonies, date unknown.

“They Chase Specters”

The irrational, the political, and fear of elections in colonial Pennsylvania.

Minority Rule Cannot Last in America

It never has.

Why Do American Presidential Transitions Take Such a Ridiculously Long Time?

Horseback travel time is only part of the story.
flag of the Cherokee Nation

The 17-Year-Old Girl Who Was Once a Leader of The Cherokee Nation

Nanyehi “Nancy” Ward tried to broker peace with white settlers.

Republicans Rediscover the Dangers of Selling Bunk to Their Constituents

Cynical public speech aimed at winning political power has consequences.
Pilgrims

Thank the Pilgrims for America's Tradition of Separatism, Division, and Infighting

They were not the nation's first settlers, but they were the most fractious.

Taverns and the Complicated Birth of Early American Civil Society

Violent, lively and brash, taverns were everywhere in early colonial America, embodying both its tumult and its promise.
Rudy Giuliani speaking at a Trump rally
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Republicans Won’t Speak Out Against Trump Because They’re Afraid Politically

And history says they have a reason to be.
The Lincoln Memorial.
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Channeling Lincoln’s Ideological Balancing Act Will Lead Biden to Success

In his time, the 16th president drew comparisons to a famous tightrope walker.
Pro-Trump protester.
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The True Danger of Trump and His Media Allies Denying the Election Results

Misinformation and conspiracy theories can foment violence and thwart democracy.
Boys holding a sign and working

What the Greatest Generation Had That the Covid Generation Lacks

Americans are no more selfish in 2020 than they were in the 1940s, the difference between the two moments is about national leadership, not national character.
Bush and Obama

The GOP Test

History is asking only one question right now as Trump refuses to concede. Will the Republicans decide they are no longer an American political party?
Oglala Lakota Chief Red Cloud in a formal portrait arranged by William Blackmore, whose hand is visible at right

The Power Brokers

A recent history centers the Lakota and the vast territory they controlled in the story of the formation of the United States.
Trump

Biden's 2020 Election Win Over Trump is Step One. But 'Lame Ducks' Can Do Damage.

Biden will take over a country facing myriad challenges. And Trump's lame-duck period could be one of the most treacherous in American history.
Illustration of a black man laying on the ground while three men step on him, 1868.

Echoes of the Reconstruction Era: The Political Violence of 1868

The 1868 Election was the first one in which hundreds of thousands of African American men voted. It also began an unfortunate history of voter suppression.
Photo of people protesting and demanding all votes are counted the day after Election Day at McPherson Square, near the White House.
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President Trump’s False Claims About Election Fraud Are Dangerous

Trump’s campaign to delegitimize the vote has a familiar ring. It evokes an egregious example of election fraud in the 1890s.
A drawing of George Washington surrounded by seals representing the states.

The Constitutional Convention Debates the Electoral College

How the founders settled on the system we love to hate today.
Harry S. Truman holding up a newspaper with the erroneous headline "Dewey Defeats Truman"

Why Americans Will Never Turn Against Polling

Failures inspire distrust of pollsters and calls for more shoe-leather reporting. But by the next election, we always come running back.

What Jaime Harrison's Race Meant for the South

Jaime Harrison lost to Lindsey Graham but expanded Democrats’ vision of what’s possible in the Deep South.
Broadside showing the Louisiana Returning Board entitled "The Political Farce of 1876," published by Joseph A. Stoll, c. 1877.

Undecided Candidates

An excerpt from the diary of presidential hopeful at the outset of the contested election of 1876.

‘America Is a Republic, Not a Democracy’ Is a Dangerous—And Wrong—Argument

Enabling sustained minority rule at the national level is not a feature of our constitutional design, but a perversion of it.
Jill Lepore and the cover of her Book "If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future"

“We Don’t Want the Program”: On How Tech Can’t Fix Democracy

“Start-ups: they need philosophers, political theorists, historians, poets. Critics.”
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Poll Watchers and the Long History of Voter Intimidation

President Trump has called on supporters, including law enforcement officers, to monitor election sites. Voter intimidation tactics have a long history.

When Young Americans Marched for Democracy Wearing Capes

In 1880, a new generation helped decide the closest popular vote in U.S. history.