Power

Exceptionalism has always been core to American patriotism, and American exceptionalism is no longer tenable.

What haunted America was not the misty specter of revolution but the solidifying specter of reactionary backlash.

How is it that the era of neoliberalism coincides almost perfectly with the triumphant rise of a discourse of human rights?

Why did Alexander Hamilton and James Madison take up the cause of the very thing that revolutionaries had vehemently opposed?

David Blight reviews Ron Chernow's biography of Ulysses S. Grant.

Before they even learn the details, adherents already know the outcome of real world events. The white guy will be the good guy, no matter what.

Hannah Arendt’s conception of human rights has much to say to our contemporary moment.

How Twitter bots help us understand the founding era.

Labor unrest harmed Democrats in the 1960s and 1970s. This time the GOP might be the loser.

Beyond “Hamilton”: How the friends turned into political rivals, and finally into mortal enemies.

When slaves got close to voting rights, slaveowners changed the rules of the game.

The conservative media made this president, and the conservative media will keep him in office.

Fifty years later, Bobby Kennedy’s passionate, inspiring, and tragic presidential campaign still fascinates.

Babies have been playing in the political arena for a long time.

When he promised to put America first in his inaugural speech, Donald Trump drew on a slogan with a long and sinister history.

Women have always come to the aid of men in power, but the costs of such actions have not always been immediately apparent.

The America that emerged out of the Civil War was meant to be a radically more equal place. What went wrong?

Of all the precedents the first president set, this is one of his most overlooked — and most important.

How we inherited our modern understanding of childhood from the 18th-century revolutionary era.

Even in a high-tech era, fears about minority political agency are the most reliable way to destabilize the U.S. political system.

What if the problem isn’t the president—it’s the presidency?

Racial justice energized the party in the past. It can today too.

The Founders feared democracy and didn't think too highly of "the people".

A conversation with the author of "Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America."

The author of "The Second Coming of the KKK" shows an early twentieth-century attempt to go mainstream.

The one consistent message coming out of today's White House was born in the 1970s: Don’t trust any institution.

The Democratic leader believed that the ordinary American was open to a message of collective responsibility and common purpose.

The abuse of data from the 1940 census has fueled fears about a citizenship question on the 2020 census form.

How Consoler-in-Chiefs respond to senseless gun violence.

The 200-year legal struggle that led to Citizens United and gave corporations the rights of people.