Power

Fighting over the legacy of a conservative hero in the era of Trump.

Because Martin Van Buren was an unsuccessful president, his more significant contributions to the nation’s political life have also been obscured.

The Black Legion was a white supremacist fascist group headquartered in Lima, Ohio. Its worst deeds are lost to memory, but they shouldn’t be.

John Dickinson's contributions to the Constitution continue to reverberate today.

They say there’s never been a man like Donald Trump in American politics. But there was—and we should learn from him. Look back to early-20th-century Georgia.

The rivalry of two men tells the story of how Democrats fumbled with their traditional base—and how they can win again.

A century ago, when Congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act, key questions about Native sovereignty were left unresolved.

Where conservatives may seek to conserve their democratic systems, reactionaries by their nature seek to weaken or abolish them.

When Puerto Ricans go to the polls, they can express their choice for several status options for the island.

The reelection of Donald Trump would mark the end of George Washington’s vision for the presidency—and the United States.

The origins of the Electoral College are entwined with slavery, but not in the way that recent accounts have suggested.

In 1956, The New York Times, dismayed by wayward polls in the prior presidential race, sent teams of reporters across the nation to better gauge public opinion.

Long before the rise of Trump, the American conservative mainstream enjoyed a complex partnership with the Far Right.

Blue America lacks a Gov. Ron DeSantis: someone remaking a state or major city in the image of a well-articulated ideology.

What was “exceptional” about the American Revolution wasn’t so much the creation of a single republic but the immediate opportunity it provided for action.

New books reconsider how Ulysses S. Grant became a forceful defender of the rights of African Americans after the Civil War.

“Against Constitutional Originalism” by historian Jonathan Gienapp could fundamentally reorient how we understand America’s founding.

Anti-immigrant think tanks and advocacy groups operated on the margins until Trump became president. Now they have molded not only the GOP but also Democrats.

American democracy has been haunted by the spectre of a Caesar-type figure since the birth of the republic. Have such fears ever been justified?

History illustrates that voters become galvanized and change their party allegiance when former US presidents run for a nonconsecutive term.

Two new books reveal the shortcomings at the heart of the liberal critique of Trump voters.

Some scholars say that it’s to blame for our political dysfunction—and that we need to start over.

Culture wars have a long and divisive history in American politics, with gender, race and religion continuing to inflame public opinion.

Horace Greeley ran against incumbent Ulysses S. Grant in November 1872. Twenty-four days later, he died of unknown causes at a private mental health facility.

Many founders expressed their hope that slavery would be abolished, while simultaneously exerting themselves to defend it.

On Nelson Rockefeller and the disappearance of moderate Republicans from American politics.

A new book tells the story of American communism as an integral part of 20th-century US history, with Communists “as social critics and social change agents.”

During the Great Depression, financial elites translated European fascism into an American form that joined high capital with lower middle-class populism.

Churchill weaponized her powers of seduction—but Pamela Harriman came into her own when she brought her glamour to Washington.

For American politicians, the obsession with appealing to the everyman dates back to the raucous campaign of 1840.