Power

In the Watergate era, high-level aides prevented Nixon’s abuses of power. Trump’s underlings can do the same.

A case from almost a decade ago reveals the peril faced by whistleblowers seeking to expose wrongdoing.

In 1950, the U.S. State Department fired 91 employees because they were homosexual or suspected of being homosexual.

More than two centuries after it was designed to empower southern white voters, the system continues to do just that.

A political neophyte delivered a speech from note cards — and made history.

The gravest danger to American democracy isn’t an excess of vitriol—it’s the false promise of civility.

His political evolution points to a different locus of power than the one liberals tend to invoke when discussing the era’s history.

The Gilded Age roots of Trump's trade philosophy.

When first-term Representative Leon Sacks of Pennsylvania introduced H.R. 6546 on April 21, 1937, the Earth did not stop spinning. But it almost did.

While they advanced African American rights, they had serious flaws, Eric Foner writes.

The long history of politicians claiming to be victims of lynching and racial violence.

Giuliani’s old playbook of engaging in the politics of white grievance fits perfectly with his role as an unofficial aide to President Trump.

We need to bring back the celebratory atmosphere that animated Election Day in the 19th century.

The constitutional standard for impeachment is different from what’s at play in a regular criminal trial.

Conspiracy theories have been a central feature in American politics since before the Revolution.

Matt Stoller charts the shifts in American attitudes toward corporate consolidation.

She faced sexism, split with a husband and found her voice teaching law in Houston.

Biden’s assistance to William Casey, Reagan’s CIA director, and the rehabilitation of the intelligence service in general has had tragic consequences.

Awaiting a Senate trial might curtail Trump's worst behaviors.

The origins of our efforts to keep foreign countries out of our elections.

What is the defining achievement of Barack Obama?

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

The Lakota, like other groups, see themselves as a sovereign people. Can Indigenous sovereignty survive colonisation?

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

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

Well before Watergate broke, John Ashbrook waged a primary campaign that the Right took very seriously.

In defining the scope of impeachment, they had in mind the alleged crimes of Warren Hastings.

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

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

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