#MeToo, Networks of Complicity, and the 1920s Klan

How the Klan’s extensive networks of patriarchal power enabled abusive men to prey on women.
Senators Joseph McCarthy and Kenneth Wherry.

The Lavender Scare: When the U.S. Government Persecuted Employees for Being Gay

From 1947 until the 1990s, an estimated 10,000 LGBTQ people were pushed out of government and military positions.

Foreign Interference in US Elections Dates Back Decades

2016 was not the first election in which a foreign power tried to interfere – Nazis and Soviets tried it too.

The Unbelievable Story of the Plot Against George Soros

How two Jewish American political consultants helped create the world’s largest anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.

The Case for Impeachment

Starting the process will rein in a president undermining American ideals—and bring the debate into Congress, where it belongs.

Manufacturing Illegality

Historian Mae Ngai reflects on how a century of immigration law created a crisis.
Anthony Scaramucci
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The Revolving Door Between Reality TV and the Trump Administration

Why Anthony Scaramucci’s turn on “Celebrity Big Brother” shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Franklin Roosevelt on the campaign trail.
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The Left is Pushing Democrats to Embrace Their Greatest President. It’s a Good Thing.

Democrats should proudly trumpet the New Deal — and extend it.

The Border Patrol has Been a Cult of Brutality Since 1924

The U.S. needs a historical reckoning with the true cause of the border crisis: the long, brutal history of border enforcement itself.

Truman Declared an Emergency When He Felt Thwarted. Trump Should Know: It Didn’t End Well.

Truman seized control of the country’s steel mills during the Korean War. It led to a landmark ruling by the Supreme Court.

The Populist Specter

Is the groundswell of popular discontent in Europe and the Americas what’s really threatening democracy?
Painting of cavalry with swords drawn heading into U.S.-Mexico War battle.

American Extremism Has Always Flowed from the Border

Donald Trump says there is “a crisis of the soul” at the border. He is right, though not in the way he thinks.

Ulysses Grant’s Forgotten Fight for Native American Rights

The President and his Seneca friend Ely Parker wanted Indians to gain citizenship, but their efforts are mostly lost to history.

The Strange History of the House’s 181-Year-Old Ban on Hats — and the Push to Overturn It

There isn’t any rule against tobacco spitting on the House floor, but there is one against wearing a hat.

The New Congress and the History of Governing by a House Divided

What do the results of the 2018 midterms portend for the next two years?
Aerial view of a fortress in Puerto Rico.

Telling the History of the U.S. Through Its Territories

“How to Hide an Empire,” explores America far beyond the borders of the Lower 48.

Dropouts Built America

When the going gets tough, the tough start something better.

How Mark Burnett Resurrected Donald Trump as an Icon of American Success

With “The Apprentice,” the TV producer mythologized Trump as the ultimate titan, paving his way to the Presidency.
Mounted NYPD officers parade down Broadway.

World War I Preparedness and the Militarization of the NYPD

From food rationing to drafting soldiers, preparedness and all it involved included a full-scale reorganization of American society, including the NYPD.
Anna Chennault with Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger.
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The Natl. Security Adviser who Colluded With Foreign Powers Decades Before Michael Flynn

New documents reveal that Richard Nixon’s 1968 campaign colluded with a foreign government far more than historians thought.
Trump and his cabinet sitting around a conference table.
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Why the Power Elite Continues to Dominate American Politics

Presidents of both parties stock their Cabinets with corporate leaders.
Political cartoon lampooning Thomas Paine and his beliefs

America and Other Fictions: On Radical Faith and Post-Religion

Thomas Paine, the most radical of American revolutionaries, perhaps most fully understood the millennial potential of the new Republic.
Supreme Court building.
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The Supreme Court Confirmation Process is Actually Less Political Than it Once Was

Our fights over nominees might be bitter, but they’re still less contentious than the 19th century.

How the IRS Was Gutted

An eight-year campaign to slash the agency’s budget has left it understaffed and hamstrung. That's good news for corporations and the wealthy.

In America's Panopticon

Sarah Igo’s "The Known Citizen" examines the linked histories of privacy and surveillance in the United States.
US soldiers use tear gas to “flush” women and children from hiding in Vietnam, 1966.

Tear Gas and the U.S. Border

How did it come to pass that a weapon banned for military use was deployed against asylum-seekers on the U.S. border?
Alaskan coastal town at the foot of snowy mountains.
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How the Federal Government Became Responsible for Disaster Relief

The Alaska earthquake that put Washington in charge of natural disasters.

Goodbye, Cold War

For the first time, we are living in a truly post-cold-war political environment in the United States.

Operation Ajax

How the CIA’s first attempt at regime change nearly failed.

George Washington Was a Master of Deception

The Founding Fathers relied on deceit in championing American independence—and that has lessons for the present.