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Still from the film Medium Cool, 1969.

That Ain't Cool

Capturing the 1968 DNC.
A collage of the cover and various pages of the Walker Report.

How the 1968 DNC Devolved into ‘Unrestrained and Indiscriminate Police Violence’

As protesters prepare for the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, a half-century old report provides lessons for preventing chaos.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris standing behind President Joe Biden, who is giving a speech at podium.
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How Democrats Gave Away Their Ability to Pick a New Nominee

Until the late 1960s, the Democratic Party could have simply anointed a replacement for President Biden. Now it's not so easy.
Injured reporter interviewing bloodied antiwar demonstrator

Seeing Was Not Believing

A new book identifies the 1968 Democratic convention as the moment when broad public regard for the news media gave way to widespread distrust, and American divisiveness took off.

50 Years Ago, Progressive Delegates Commandeered the Democratic Convention

The surprise vice presidential nomination of Julian Bond suddenly turned the televised discussion to poverty, racism, and war.

Rage Against the Machine

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

The Moment That Political Debates on TV Turned to Spectacle

A new documentary explores the infamous 1968 dispute between William Buckley and Gore Vidal.
Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson.

Hate Burst Out: Chicago, 1968

It is hard not to figure the 1968 election as inaugurating the cultural and political polarisation of the American electorate so evident today.
Joe Biden speaking in January.

No, the 2024 Election Won’t Be Anything Like 1968

The election will be a challenge for Joe Biden. But looking to the past won’t help him—or us—understand what lies ahead.
Chicago Vietnam antiwar march

How the Asian American Movement Learned a Lesson in Liberation from the Black Panthers

In 1968, Chicago grabbed the eyes of the world when fifteen thousand Vietnam antiwar protesters vowed to shut down the National Democratic Convention.

4 Contested Conventions in Presidential Election History

Having a single candidate by the time of the convention has been a key stepping stone for a party’s victory. But it hasn't always worked out that way.

A Conservative Activist’s Quest to Preserve all Network News Broadcasts

Convinced of rampant bias on the evening news, Paul Simpson founded the Vanderbilt Television News Archive.
Delegates on the floor at the Democratic National Convention at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, August 26, 1964.

How to Steal an Election

The crazy history of nominating Conventions.
Cha Cha Jiménez with his arms crossed and a cigarette in his mouth, crossing his arms and looking at the camera.

From Street Gang to Revolutionaries

José ‘Cha Cha’ Jiménez and the Young Lords laid the groundwork for radical racial justice movements.
People holding antiwar signs at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

A Brief History of the Democratic Party

The Democratic Party, and the US political system as a whole, is a very strange beast.
Police beat protesters at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

The Plot to Wreck the Democratic Convention

May not amount to much, actually. Chicago 2024 is not Chicago 1968.
Image of theater proscenium with '1776' on the stage.ng

The '1776' Project

The Broadway revival of the musical means less to reanimate the nation’s founding than to talk back to it.
Ron DeSantis at podium at CPAC.
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Instead of Boosting Democracy, Primary Elections Are Undermining It

Why our politics are growing ever more extreme — and democracy itself is under siege.
African American and white participants in the 1963 march on Washington, holding signs demanding voting rights, jobs, and an end to police brutality.

How Protest Moves From the Streets Into the Statehouse

In The Loud Minority, Daniel Gillion examines the relationship between electoral politics and protest movements.
Newark protesters and National Guard

A Warning Ignored

America did exactly what the Kerner Commission on the urban riots of the mid-1960s advised against, and fifty years later reaped the consequences it predicted.
A man sitting at a table

Aaron Sorkin’s Inane, Liberal History Lesson

Why his reformist retelling of the Chicago Seven fails to tell the real story of the leftists on trial.

Allen Ginsberg at the End of America

The polarized dialogue over Vietnam and the civil rights movement convinced Ginsberg that America was teetering on the precipice of a fall.
Presidential candidates after a Democratic primary debate.
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South Carolina May Well Determine Whether Democrats Can Win the Presidency

Winning the South Carolina primary requires exciting a crucial constituency.
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Why the Iowa Caucuses May Elevate an Underdog

History shows that this blockbuster event is merely a test of organizational strength in one small state.
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Jimmy Carter and The Myth That Gave the Iowa Caucuses Their Political Power

What does winning in Iowa really mean?

How Did the Presidential Campaign Get to Be So Long?

U.S. presidential elections didn't drag on so long before the late sixties.

The Most Important Album of 1968 Wasn’t The White Album. It Was Beggars Banquet.

It saved the Rolling Stones, altered the trajectory of music history, and turns 50 this week.
LBJ at his desk writing.
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Foreign Powers Interfered in the 1968 Election. Why Didn’t LBJ Stop Them?

Was his disdain for his vice president greater than his desire for Democrats to win?

Democrats’ Struggle Over Masculinity 50 Years Ago is Still Playing Out Today

Liberal politicians should trumpet a vision of masculinity that incorporates the best qualities of LBJ and Humphrey.

The Dual Defeat

Hubert Humphrey and the unmaking of Cold War liberalism.

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