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The seal of the Confederate States of America on a brass medallion.

The Mystery of the Great Seal

Ann Banks on the history of her father's Civil War seal and her family's past connection to the Confederacy.
Wallpaper printed in support of the Constitutional Union Party’s presidential candidate, John Bell, in 1860.

A Constitution of Freedom

During the 1860 presidential election, political parties dueled over the intent of the framers.
State troopers guarding a roadblock during an armed standoff at the “embassy” of the separatist group Republic of Texas, Fort Davis, Texas, May 1997

Why It’s Time to Take Secessionist Talk Seriously

Disunion is hardly a new theme in American politics. In this moment of tumult, it would be unwise to rule out its return.
A crowd of people with one person waving the Confederate flag

Learning from the Failure of Reconstruction

The storming of the Capitol was an expression of the antidemocratic strands in American history.
Person walks with Confederate flag in the U.S. Capitol

The Whole Story in a Single Photo

An image from the Capitol captures the distance between who we purport to be and who we have actually been.
Person walking with Confederate flag inside of the U.S. Capitol

The Capitol Riot Reveals the Dangers From the Enemy Within

But the belief that America previously had a well-functioning democracy is an illusion.
Man with a pistol at his hip carries the retired flag of Mississippi with a confederate battle emblem in it, and a Trump 2020 flag.
partner

Yes, Wednesday’s Attempted Insurrection Is Who We Are

While Wednesday's images shocked us, they fit into our history.
Collage of maps representative of the project
partner

Southern Journey: The Migrations of the American South 1790-2020

The maps embrace everyone —free and enslaved, from the first national census of the late 18th century to the sophisticated surveys of the early 21st century.
Headshot of William Faulkner

‘A Land Where the Dead Past Walks’

Faulkner’s chroniclers have to reconcile the novelist’s often repellent political positions with the extraordinary meditations on race, violence, and cruelty in his fiction.
William Tyler in front of a portrait of his father.

The 10th President’s Last Surviving Grandson: A Bridge to The Nation’s Complicated Past

At 91, Harrison Ruffin Tyler demonstrates that "long ago" wasn't so long ago.
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.
The five members of The Band in black and white

Is “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” Really a Pro-Confederate Anthem?

The answer may lie in the ear of the beholder.
People raising their fists and gathered around the Robert E. Lee Memorial in Richmond, Virginia

Europe in 1989, America in 2020, and the Death of the Lost Cause

A whole vision of history seems to be leaving the stage.
Freedmen's Memorial

Yes, the Freedmen’s Memorial Uses Racist Imagery. But Don’t Tear It Down.

Keep in mind what it meant to the people who created it.
Part of the pedestal of a monument, inscribed with the words "Bright angels come and guard our sleeping heroes."

The Even Uglier Truth Behind Athens Confederate Monument

It was intended to be a tool of political power, sending a message against Black voting and serving as a gathering point for the Ku Klux Klan.
Toppled Howitzers Monument in Richmond, VA

American Oligarchy

A review of "How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America."

The Power of Empty Pedestals

After Governor Northam announced its removal, two Richmond historians reflect on the legacy of the Lee Monument.

Growing Up with Juneteenth

How a Texan holiday became a national tradition.
Protesters in front of a Confederate monument hold a banner that reads "Take the statue down."

Ole Miss’s Monument to White Supremacy

New evidence shows what the 30-foot-tall Confederate memorial was actually meant to commemorate.  

The Idea of a Nation

The idea of a modern nation is both confusing and conflicting. And as the world confronts the current global health crisis, its weaknesses become more apparent.

Take the Confederate Names Off Our Army Bases

It is time to remove the names of traitors like Benning and Bragg from our country’s most important military instillations.

Jubilee Jim Fisk and the Great Civil War Score

In 1865, a failed stockbroker tries to pull off one of the boldest financial schemes in American history: the original big short.

BookChat with David Silkenat, Author of Raising the White Flag

The Civil War started with a surrender, ended with a series of surrenders, and had several of its major campaigns end in surrender.
Watercolor of Abraham Lincoln with soldiers in swirls of red across his face.

Abraham Lincoln’s Radical Moderation

What the president understood that the zealous Republican reformers in Congress didn’t.
African-American cowboys in Bonham, Texas, circa 1913

The Real Texas

What is Texas? Should we even think about so large and diverse a place as having an essence that can be distilled?

Why is the Army Still Honoring Confederate Generals?

Confederate Statues aren't the only reminder of the Civil War - the US Army still has major bases named for Confederate soldiers.

Moral Courage and the Civil War

Monuments ask us to look at the past, but how they do it exposes crucial aspects of the present.

Conservatives Say We've Abandoned Reason and Civility. The Old South Said That, Too

The ‘reasonable’ right’s persecution rhetoric echoes the Confederacy’s defense of slavery.

How Slavery Shaped American Capitalism

The New York Times is right that slavery made a major contribution to capitalist development in the United States — just not in the way they imagine.
Cotton field.

How The 1619 Project Rehabilitates the ‘King Cotton’ Thesis

The New York Times’ series on slavery relies on bad scholarship to make an argument with an inauspicious history.

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