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Abraham Lincoln

Was the Civil War Inevitable?

Before Lincoln turned the idea of “the Union” into a cause worth dying for, he tried other means of ending slavery in America.
by Adam Gopnik via The New Yorker on April 21, 2025
A drawing of a bust of Abraham Lincoln sitting on philosophy books.

From Königsberg to Gettysburg

How German Enlightenment thought influenced Abraham Lincoln.
by Allen C. Guelzo via Claremont Review of Books on June 15, 2024
Nikki Haley, 2023.

Nikki Haley's Slavery Omission Typifies the GOP's Tragic Pact with White Supremacy

How the Southern Strategy of the late 20th century gave rise to the modern GOP.
by Annika Brockschmidt via Religion Dispatches on January 8, 2024
Ripped American flag flying next to the Texas flag.

In Texas, Even the Lies about the Confederacy Are Bigger

Republican House Speaker Joe Straus is calling for the removal of a Confederate plaque about the role of slavery in the Civil War.
by Kevin M. Levin via Civil War Memory on September 20, 2017

Why There Was a Civil War

Some issues aren’t amenable to deal making; some principles don’t lend themselves to compromise.
by Yoni Appelbaum via The Atlantic on May 1, 2017

Donald Trump Bullsh*ts His Way Through Civil War History

"Why could that one not have been worked out?"
via Funny Or Die on May 1, 2017

What This Cruel War Was Over

The meaning of the Confederate flag is best discerned in the words of those who bore it.
by Ta-Nehisi Coates via The Atlantic on June 22, 2015
A throng of Trump supporters, some in colonial garb, march through Washington D.C.

The 19th-Century Precursors to the Crises of Trump’s America

Revisiting history shows that violence and constitutional disputes are nothing new in US politics.
by Marcus Alexander Gadson via New Lines on July 4, 2025
John C. Calhoun

The Prelude to the Civil War

“Only two states wanted a civil war—Massachusetts and South Carolina.”
by Hunter DeRensis via The American Conservative on May 5, 2025
A political cartoon depicting Brighma Young walking in front of a group of his wives, the majority of whom are depicted as non-white.
partner

The Sovereignty of the Latter-day Saints

Less about morality than about rights, the Mormon War of 1858 hinged on the issue of polygamy, pitting a Utah community against federal authorities.
by Katie McBride Moench via JSTOR Daily on August 28, 2024
John Montgomery’s Notice to George W. Gray, November 26, 1855.

“Acts of Lawless Violence”: The Office of Indian Affairs, and the Coming of the Civil War in Kansas

The question should not be if settler colonialism factored into the history of the Civil War but how and to what extent.
by Paul Barba via Muster on July 17, 2024
A drawing of a Wide Awake march.

These Torchlit Young Marchers Helped to Save American Democracy

They called themselves the Wide Awakes. They are a lesson in building a political movement.
by Jon Grinspan via Washington Post on May 14, 2024
original

Where Kansas Bled

How can one place represent the complexity of the Civil War’s beginnings?
by Ed Ayers on November 30, 2023

Mildred Rutherford’s War

The “historian general” of the United Daughters of the Confederacy began the battle over the depiction of the South in history textbooks that continues today.
by Adam Hochschild via New York Review of Books on November 16, 2023

The Men Who Started the War

John Brown and the Secret Six—the abolitionists who funded the raid on Harpers Ferry—confronted a question as old as America: When is violence justified?
by Drew Gilpin Faust via The Atlantic on November 13, 2023
Black and white photograph of a man. The main has his hair styled to point upwards, and a tattoo of the word Mississippi on his back.

Where Does the South Begin?

A new history cuts against stereotypes, to show a region constantly changing—and whose future is up for grabs.
by Scott Wasserman Stern via The New Republic on June 26, 2023
John Brown, 1859

Paving the Way to Harpers Ferry: The Disunion Convention of 1857

Southern pro-slavery states weren't the only states calling for disunion before the Civil War erupted.
by David T. Dixon via Emerging Civil War on February 16, 2022

The Unreconstructed Radical

Thaddeus Stevens was a fierce opponent of the “odious” compromises in the Constitution, and of the North’s compromises after the Civil War.
by Richard Kreitner via The Baffler on May 13, 2021

Why Confederate Lies Live On

For some Americans, history isn’t the story of what actually happened; it’s the story they want to believe.
by Clint Smith via The Atlantic on May 10, 2021
The word slavery in a dictionary crossed out

We Found the Textbooks of Senators Who Oppose The 1619 Project and Suddenly Everything Makes Sense

To our surprise, most received a well-rounded education on the history of Black people in America. Just kidding.
by Michael Harriot via The Root on May 6, 2021

Republicans Rediscover the Dangers of Selling Bunk to Their Constituents

Cynical public speech aimed at winning political power has consequences.
by Rachel Shelden via The Atlantic on November 25, 2020
Drawing of Lincoln with his hand on a Bible during a swearing-in with two other people

The Presidential Transition That Shattered America

A Trump-Biden transition is sure to be scary. But it’d be hard to beat Buchanan-Lincoln.
by Rebecca Onion, Susan Schulten via Slate on October 28, 2020
Graffiti on a wall spelling "vote"
partner

Refusing to Accept the Results of a Presidential Election Triggered the Civil War

The danger of President Trump's rhetoric.
by Aaron Sheehan-Dean via Made By History on October 2, 2020

Re-watching ‘The Civil War’ During the Breonna Taylor and George Floyd Protests

The landmark Ken Burns documentary hasn’t aged well. But it continues to shape American perceptions about the Confederacy and slavery.
by Gillian Brockell via Retropolis on September 26, 2020

The Confederacy Was an Antidemocratic, Centralized State

The actual Confederate States of America was a repressive state devoted to white supremacy.
by Stephanie McCurry via The Atlantic on June 21, 2020

‘A Doubtful Freedom’

Andrew Delbanco's new book positions the debate over fugitive slaves as a central factor in the nation's slide toward disunion.
by David W. Blight via New York Review of Books on January 14, 2020

"Poor Whites Have Been Written out of History for a Very Political Reason"

For generations, Southern white elites have been terrified of poor whites and black workers joining hands.
by Keri Leigh Merritt, Robert Greene II via Jacobin on August 24, 2019
1857 map of the United States, showing slave versus free states.

How Slavery Doomed Limited Government in America

It made it impossible to limit the size and scope of the federal government. Conservatives need to recognize that.
by Philip Klein via Washington Examiner on August 20, 2019

The Class Politics of the Civil War

By naming a common enemy the Union Army was able to build and then steer a coalition of Americans toward the systematic destruction of slavery.
by James Oakes via The Nation on July 15, 2019

Why We Need a New Civil War Documentary

The success and brilliance of the new PBS series on Reconstruction is a reminder of the missed opportunity facing the nation.
by Keri Leigh Merritt via Smithsonian on April 23, 2019
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