Bella Abzug with a group of women with strike signs.

'In a Perfectly Just Republic,' Bella Abzug – Born a Century Ago – Would Have Been President

Before presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, before Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, there was Congresswoman and firebrand Bella Abzug.
Protester holding sign that reads "Not My President"

A Definitive Case Against the Electoral College

Why the framers created the Electoral College — and why we need to get rid of it.
Armed troops wearing gas masks walk through tear gas at Black Lives Matter protest.
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The Extraordinary Scene Unfolding in Portland Has a Disturbing History

How immigration enforcement and policing became entwined
French military marching in practice for the Bastille Day Parade.
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The American Founders Celebrated the Storming of the Bastille

They understood that revolution means dismantling old power structures, violently if necessary.
A campaign illustration featuring busts of Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson over festoons featuring eagles, smoke, and the American flag.

Andrew Johnson’s Abuse of Pardons Was Relentless

Worried that the presidential power to undo convictions can be taken too far? Look no further than Lincoln’s successor.

America's Black Soldiers

The long history behind the Army's Jim Crow forts.

Lincoln’s Paramilitaries, the “Wide Awakes,” Helped Bring About a Political Revolution

In 1860, a novel paramilitary-style organization mobilized hundreds of thousands against the Southern planter class.
Frances Perkins on a ship, wearing a winter coat and gloves.
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Frances Perkins: Architect of the New Deal

She designed Social Security and public works programs that helped bring millions out of poverty. Her work has been largely forgotten.
Women gathered around Eleanor Roosevelt at Camp Tera.

The New Deal Program that Sent Women to Summer Camp

About 8,500 women attended the camps inspired by the CCC and organized by Eleanor Roosevelt—but the "She-She-She" program was mocked and eventually abandoned.

Will We Still Be American After Democracy Dies?

Is being "political" the central force in our identities?
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 on Liberty Island in New York Harbor.

The Nativist Tradition

Two recent books put the reemergence of anti-immigrant sentiment in the Trump era into historical relief.

The Empire of All Maladies

Indigenous scholars have long contested the “virgin-soil epidemics” thesis. Today, it is clear that the disease thesis simply doesn’t hold up.
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"It Has Not Been My Habit to Yield"

Charles Sumner and the fight for equal naturalization rights.
Donald Trump giving a speech in front of a large photo of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

‘The Most Ignorant and Unfit’: What Made America’s Worst Ever Leader?

The real challenge is not simply to replace Trump, but to fix a system that produces, promotes, and protects the toxicity that defines his presidency.
Robert Smalls

What Woodrow Wilson Did to Robert Smalls

We all know, in the abstract, that Wilson was a white supremacist. But here’s how he wielded his racism against one accomplished Black American.
Drawing of three Native American men wearing plains dress.

The Last Chief of the Comanches and the Fall of an Empire

Dustin Tahmahkera details the life of the last chief of the Comanches, Quanah Parker.
Illustration of Founders signing the Declaration of Independence.

How the Meaning of the Declaration of Independence Changed Over Time

When Thomas Jefferson penned ‘all men are created equal,’ he did not mean individual equality, says Stanford scholar.

The Confederates Loved America, and They’re Still Defining What Patriotism Means

The ideology of the men who celebrated the United States while fighting for its dissolution is still very much alive.
Robert E. Lee Memorial covered in graffiti and projections and surrounded by protesters.

The Racism of Confederate Monuments Extends to Voter Suppression

GOP-led state legislatures have not only prevented voters from exercising their rights as citizens, they have usurped local control to remove monuments legally.

The Past and Future of Latinx Politics

Two new books look at the history of Latinx Democrats and Republicans and the role each will play in the future.
Barry Goldwater speaking at a 1964 rally, placing his finger over his lips.

The Western Origins of the “Southern Strategy”

The untold story of the ideological realignment that upended the nation.

Confederate Battle Flag Comes Down in Mississippi; ‘Medgar’s Wings Must Be Clapping.’

Myrlie Evers began to weep when she heard the Mississippi Legislature vote to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag.

The Republican Choice

How a party spent decades making itself white.
Toppled Howitzers Monument in Richmond, VA

American Oligarchy

A review of "How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America."
Youth members of a German-American Bund camp raising a flag, 1934.

American Fascism: It Has Happened Here

Americans of the interwar period were perfectly clear about one fact we have lost sight of today: all fascism is indigenous, by definition.

The Confederacy Was an Antidemocratic, Centralized State

The actual Confederate States of America was a repressive state devoted to white supremacy.

The Republican President who Called for Racial Justice in America After Tulsa Massacre

Warren G. Harding’s comments about race and equality were remarkable for 1921.
Lithograph of crowd gathering around a train.
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The Great Upheaval of 1877 Sheds Light on Today’s Protests

Spontaneous strikes led by the working class in 1877 resulted in violent clashes with police.
An illustration of a pilgrim looking toward the sky with a group of others gathered around kneeling.

What Liberty Meant to the Pilgrims

Most adult men could aspire to participation in the religious and political government of the colony. But this communal liberty did not imply personal liberty.
Painting of a sinking ship on fire, in which the fire looks like the American flag.

The Confederate Project

What the Confederacy actually was: a proslavery anti-democratic state, dedicated to the proposition that all men were not created equal.