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Trump’s View of America as a White Nation Is as American as Apple Pie

But it’s seriously dated. And there's another tradition he could draw on.
Lyndon Johnson with advisors including Robert McNamara and Dean Rusk.

How the Tet Offensive Undermined American Faith in Government

Fifty years ago, the January 1968 battle laid bare the way U.S. leaders had misled the public about the war in Vietnam.
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Racism Has Always Driven U.S. Policy Toward Haiti

On Haiti, Donald Trump sounds a lot like Thomas Jefferson.
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Trump’s Views on Immigration Aren’t as Bad as Those in The 1920s. They’re Worse.

The designers of the quota system at least tried to hide their racism.
Political cartoon of the Populist Party python eating the Democratic Party donkey.

Historians Have Long Thought Populism Was a Good Thing. Are They Wrong?

Today’s populist resurgence has us rethinking the role these movements play in U.S. politics.
Historian Timothy Naftali being interviewed by Fareed Zakaria on television.
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How Republicans Set the Stage for Trump’s Corrosive Ideas on Immigration

Trump's language might be uniquely vulgar but his ideas are part of a long trend.

Without Haiti, the United States Would, in Fact, Be a Shithole

And some other things about the country that Donald Trump doesn’t know and doesn’t care to know.

Could the 25th Amendment Be Trump’s Downfall?

An explanation of the provision that allows for the removal of a president who is deemed by others to be unable to serve.
U.S. government medical marijuana crop at University of Mississippi.
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Jeff Sessions is a Hypocrite on States’ Rights. But So is Everyone Else.

Champions of states' rights love federal power when it suits their goals — like Sessions's anti-marijuana crusade.
Richard Nixon

What Happens When There’s a Madman in the White House?

“When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.”

Lessons from the Election of 1968

Protests, populism, and progressivism all clashed in a battle royal. But what really drives election results?

John Dewey's Experiment in Democratic Socialism

Despite his reputation as a liberal, Dewey's staunch commitment to democracy put him on a collision course with capitalism.

How Trump Is Making Us Rethink American Exceptionalism

This past year has shown that the U.S. is far from immune to the forces shaping the rest of the world.

Why Do We Salute Volunteer Soldiers but Scorn Professional Warriors?

Since the Mexican-American War, Army regulars haven't always been treated as heroes.
Millard Filmore.
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Remembering the Sins of Millard Fillmore

A little-remembered president's most notorious act.
Political cartoon of the Populist Party python eating the Democratic Party donkey.

The Myth of 'Populism'

It's the transatlantic commentariat’s favorite political put-down. It’s also historically illiterate.
Albert B. Fall swears in as Interior Secretary in 1921.

Reckoning with History: Interior’s Legacy of Bad Behavior

Ryan Zinke isn’t the first Interior secretary to attract controversy.
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How the Korean War Put Presidents in Charge of Nuclear Weapons

The president's unilateral nuclear authority comes from decisions made at the start of the Atomic Age.

The Forgotten Origins of Politics in Sports

Black athletes didn’t “politicize” American sports. They’ve been a battleground from the very beginning.

Rage Against the Machine

An excerpt from a novel by Todd Gitlin that reimagines the violence outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Rexford Guy Tugwell and the Case for Big Urbanism

New York City’s first planning commissioner lost a bigger battle against Robert Moses than the fight Jane Jacobs won.

The Fight Over Andrew Johnson's Impeachment Was a Fight for the Future of the United States

The biggest show in Washington 150 years ago was the trial against the President of the United States.
Alexander Hamilton

The Many Alexander Hamiltons

An interview with a historian of Hamilton. That is, an “interview” in the modern sense of questions and answers and not in the Hamilton-Burr sense of pistols at dawn.
Whites at a Trump campaign rally.

Does the White Working Class Really Vote Against Its Own Interests?

Trump has revived an age-old debate about why some people choose race over class—and how far they will go to protect the system.

Masher Menace: When American Women First Confronted Their Sexual Harassers

The #MeToo movement is not the first time women have publicly stood up to sexual harassment.
KKK march in Washington in 1925.

The Second Klan

Linda Gordon’s new book captures how white supremacy has long been part of our political mainstream.

Mapping the First Decade of Congressional Elections

Using maps to visualize the first five U.S. Congressional elections.
Chuck Schumer talks with a staffer in shadow beneath the seal of the U.S. Senate.
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Secrecy in the Senate

To the framers, working in secret was meant to deliver enlightened legislation.
Man holding a Veterans for Trump sign at a rally.

Forgotten Men

The long road from FDR to Trump.

How the Kim Kardashians of Yesteryear Helped Women Get the Vote

Now all but forgotten, a group of New York socialites was instrumental to the success of the suffrage movement.