The Mafia Style in American Politics

Roy Cohn connects the McCarthy era to the age of Trump across more than half a century.

Can Colonial Nations Truly Recognise the Sovereignty of Indigenous People?

The Lakota, like other groups, see themselves as a sovereign people. Can Indigenous sovereignty survive colonisation?
Smudged and revised copy of the Constitution.

The Constitution Is the Crisis

The system is rigged, and it’s the Constitution that’s doing the rigging.

The Strange Career of ‘National Security’

When the phrase became a national obsession, it turned everything from trade rules to dating apps into a potential threat.

When Conservatives Tried to Throw Out Richard Nixon

Well before Watergate broke, John Ashbrook waged a primary campaign that the Right took very seriously.
Trial of Warren Hastings in the Court of Peers, Westminster Hall.

Why the Founders Added ‘High Crimes and Misdemeanors’

In defining the scope of impeachment, they had in mind the alleged crimes of Warren Hastings.
Demonstrators with signs reading "Impeach Nixon" march toward the U.S. Capitol.

How Watergate Set the Stage for the Trump Impeachment Inquiry

The Nixon impeachment proceedings and their parallels with the Trump-Ukraine scandal.

America Needs Whistle-Blowers Because of People Like This

Since the founding, Congress has supported democracy and public integrity by protecting those who spoke up about abuses of power.

The Fourth Battle for the Constitution

The latest struggle to define America's founding charter will define the country for generations to come.

The Great Fear of 1776

Against the backdrop of the Revolution, American Indians recognized a looming threat to their very existence.

"He Lies Like a Dog": The First Effort to Impeach a President Was Led by His Own Party

Long before President Donald Trump, there was President John Tyler.

When Adding New States Helped the Republicans

DC statehood would be a modest ploy compared with the mass admission of underpopulated western territories.
Samuel Francis

The Outsider

Who was behind the "Trumpist manifesto" released twenty years before Trump became president?

American Immigration: A Century of Racism

On Daniel Okrent's "The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America."

‘We May Have to Shoot Down This Aircraft’

What the chaos aboard Flight 93 on 9/11 looked like to the White House and the fighter pilots prepared to ram the plane's cockpit.

Immigration Enforcement and the U.S.-Mexico Border

A microsyllabus on the history of the U.S.-Mexico border, refugees, and deportation.

Did Social Work Kill Civil Society?

A new book makes the case.

The 40-Year War

William Barr’s long struggle against congressional oversight.

The Electoral College Was Terrible From the Start

It’s doubtful even Alexander Hamilton believed what he was selling in “Federalist No. 68.”

From Mind Control to Murder? How a Deadly Fall Revealed the CIA’s Darkest Secrets

Frank Olson died in 1953, but it took decades for his family to get closer to the truth.
Painting of the signing of the Constitution.

The American Founders Made Sure the President Could Never Suspend Congress

Boris Johnson is suspending Parliament for five weeks. That couldn't happen in the United States.

Conservatives Say We've Abandoned Reason and Civility. The Old South Said That, Too

The ‘reasonable’ right’s persecution rhetoric echoes the Confederacy’s defense of slavery.
Political cartoon of Grover Cleveland's trade policy.

Grover Cleveland and the Democrats Who Saved Conservatism

They stood against Tammany Hall, the centralized presidency, and profligate spending. Today's Right should give them another look.
Congresswomen Omar, Pressley, Ocasio-Cortez, and Tlaib.
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The Radical Roots of ‘the Squad’

How Mickey Leland and the Congressional Black Caucus paved the way for today's progressive politics.
Black and white photo of the Libertarian Party’s 1980 presidential candidate, Ed Clark, center, with his running mate, David H. Koch.

How David Koch’s 1980 Fantasy Became America’s Current Reality

Koch poured $2 million into an embryonic Libertarian Party to buoy his run for vice president. He knew he wouldn't win—but that wasn't the point.
Cover of "Cold Warriors" book.

Before Oprah’s Book Club, there was the CIA

‘Cold Warriors’ traces how the U.S. and Soviet government used writers like George Orwell and Boris Pasternak to wage ideological battles during the Cold War.

No Refuge

When Congress gave the Secretary of Labor discretion over any immigrant “likely to become a public charge,” they weren’t expecting someone like Frances Perkins.

The Political Chaos and Unexpected Activism of the Post-Civil War Era

Charles Postel on the temperance crusade that galvanized the American women's movement.
1857 map of the United States, showing slave versus free states.

How Slavery Doomed Limited Government in America

It made it impossible to limit the size and scope of the federal government. Conservatives need to recognize that.
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What Hawaii’s Statehood Says About Inclusion in America

Conditional inclusion for "model minorities" perpetuates enduring forms of racial exclusion.