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Stack of Newspapers.

A Brief History of America’s Campaign Against Dissident Newsmaking

On underground presses and state violence.
by Aaron Boehmer via Literary Hub on March 26, 2025
Image of Jewish protestors outside the White House, wearing sweatshirts that state "Not In Our Name."

How Israel Quietly Crushed Early American Jewish Dissent on Palestine

An explosive new book delves into American Jewish McCarthyism from the 1950s through late 1970s.
by Debbie Nathan via The Intercept on March 3, 2024
Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust in 2009.

The Bleak, All But-Forgotten World of Segregated Virginia

Former Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust’s extraordinary memoir recalls painful memories for her--and me.
by Garrett Epps via Washington Monthly on November 8, 2023
Justice Clarence Thomas.

Clarence Thomas Wants to Demolish Indian Law

The conservative justice is on course for an originalist fight with Neil Gorsuch.
by Matt Ford via The New Republic on June 23, 2023
Black and white photo of African American girl attending a white segregated school

A Powerful, Forgotten Dissent

Among the thousands of cases the Supreme Court has decided, only a handful of dissenting opinions stand out.
by Linda Greenhouse via New York Review of Books on September 15, 2022

When Dissent Became Treason

100 years ago, war proved to be a godsend for a president with no tolerance for opposition. We would be wise to heed the lesson.
by Adam Hochschild via New York Review of Books on September 28, 2017
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Going Negative

Judicial dissent in the Supreme Court has a long history.
by Thomas Healy via Boston Review on November 12, 2015
William F. Buckley reclines behind a desk, glasses in hand, a bulletin board of National Review magazine material behind him.

The Conservative Intellectual Who Laid the Groundwork for Trump

The political vision that William F. Buckley helped forge was—and remains today—focused less on adhering to principles and more on ferreting out enemies.
by Jack McCordick via The New Republic on June 3, 2025
An eraser erasing a drawing of man.

R.F.K., Jr., Anthony Fauci, and the Revolt Against Expertise

It used to be progressives who distrusted the experts. What happened?
by Daniel Immerwahr via The New Yorker on May 19, 2025
U.S Department of Justice "Notice to Aliens of Enemy Nationalities"

What Is the Alien Enemies Act?

Trump is relying on a 1798 law with a bad history.
by William Hogeland via Hogeland's Bad History on April 14, 2025
Senator Joseph McCarthy speaking into microphones.

Newly Declassified Documents Reveal the Untold Stories of the Red Scare

In his latest book, journalist and historian Clay Risen explores how the House Un-American Activities Committee and Senator Joseph McCarthy upended the nation.
by Sara Georgini, Clay Risen via Smithsonian on April 1, 2025
Demonstrator with a sign advocating the release of Mahmoud Khalil.

Trump’s Deportations Are a Throwback to Red Scare Politics

The long tradition of the US government using border policy as a tool for political control, stretching back to Red Scare efforts to suppress left-wing dissent.
by Kim Phillips-Fein via Jacobin on March 20, 2025
A UC Berkeley student picket supports a strike protesting demonstrators’ arrests, 1964.
partner

Whose Side Are College Administrators On?

There’s a long history of politicians targeting student protesters — and of campus leaders abetting those efforts.
by Lauren Lassabe Shepherd via HNN on March 19, 2025
President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

The First Draft of the Ukraine War’s History

Washington’s policy-makers showed themselves more wicked and feckless than their Vietnam- and Iraq-era predecessors.
by Scott McConnell via The American Conservative on February 19, 2025
Peace protester, wearing keffiyeh and holding sign reading "STOP" with red handprint.

McCarthyism Is Alive and Well With the “Nonprofit Killer” Bill

Today’s legislative efforts against the Palestine solidarity movement bear a striking resemblance to McCarthyism in both tactics and ideology.
by Rachel Ida Buff via Jacobin on January 13, 2025
Richard Nixon at a press conference pointing at a reporter.

Nixon’s Official Acts Against His Enemies List Led to a Bipartisan Impeachment Effort

An enemies list isn’t a weapon against ‘the Deep State.’ It was a tool Richard Nixon used to create a deep state of his own.
by Ken Hughes via The Conversation on December 18, 2024
William H. Taft with his extended family in 1918.

Review: ‘The Tafts’ by George W. Liebmann

A new book celebrates an American political dynasty dedicated to public service. Why have they been forgotten?
by Antony Lentin via History Today on November 25, 2024
Supreme Court justices William O. Douglas, Felix Frankfurter, and Owen J. Roberts at the White House.

FDR’s Compliant Justices

The Supreme Court’s deference to FDR during World War II resulted in unjustifiable ethical breaches.
by Jed S. Rakoff via New York Review of Books on November 14, 2024
Davy Crockett monument in Texas.

The Political Example of Davy Crockett

As a congressman, Davy Crockett found ways to navigate populist upheaval and maintain his own independence.
by Miles Smith IV via Law & Liberty on November 12, 2024
A drawing of protestors wrestling a tax collector to the ground.

A Prudent First Amendment

Often, the proper scope of the First Amendment can be determined only by considering both text and context.
by David Lewis Schaefer via Law & Liberty on November 7, 2024
Black man in jail depicted evoking American flag imagery, with the star in his eye and stripes as jail bars

Ill Fares the Land

A prison is a difficult thing to kill.
by Spencer Weinreich via Los Angeles Review of Books on July 29, 2024
Charles Francis Phillips and Owen Cattell, two Columbia University students, seated.

In 1917, Columbia’s Clampdown Remade the Antiwar Movement

When police raided Columbia University in May, commentators drew parallels to the 1968. But the school’s hostility to the antiwar movement traces back to 1917.
by Dan La Botz via Jacobin on July 11, 2024
Donald Trump speaking into microphone and pointing his finger.

‘I’d Rather Have 10 Ken Starrs Than One Donald Trump’

A new book explores the history of presidents who abused their constitutional power and the citizen movements that stopped them.
by Michael Kruse, Corey Brettschneider via Politico on July 8, 2024
Donald Trump walking onstage, next to four American flags.

‘The Dred Scott of Our Time’

The Supreme Court has invested the presidency with quasi-monarchial powers, repudiating the foundational principle of the rule of law.
by Sean Wilentz via New York Review of Books on July 4, 2024
Richard Nixon's face superimposed onto the January 6th protests.

Richard Nixon Would Have Loved the Court’s Immunity Decision

I would know.
by John Dean via The Atlantic on July 3, 2024
Noam Chomsky.

How George Orwell Paved Noam Chomsky’s Path to Anarchism

On the profound impact of Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia" on Noam Chomsky's early embrace of left-libertarian and anarchist ideologies.
by Robert F. Barsky via The MIT Press Reader on July 3, 2024
Chief Justice John Roberts at the State of the Union on March 7.

The Supreme Court Turns the President Into a King

The conservative justices have ignored history altogether and created a shocking new precedent: The president is above the law.
by Holly Brewer via The New Republic on July 1, 2024
Sections of the US Constitution torn to be used as pennants.

Is the United States Too Devoted to the Constitution?

A new book argues that worship of the Constitution has distorted our politics.
by John Fabian Witt via The New Republic on June 24, 2024
NYPD arrests hundreds, including members of the Jewish group Not In Our Name, at a pro-Palestinian protest in Brooklyn on April 23, 2024.

Jewish Critics of Zionism Have Clashed with American Jewish Leaders for Decades

American foreign aid to Israel has long relied on the support of American Jews. But American Jews have never been unified in their support for Israel.
by Marjorie N. Feld via The Conversation on June 20, 2024
Carbinari seal of a woman holding a liberty cap.

Lady Liberty in Restoration Italy? Crime, Counterfeit, and Carbonari Revolutionary Politics

Following Napoleon’s fall, international secret societies emerged promoting dissent from absolutist forms of power and sharing ideologies and iconographies.
by Giuseppe Perelli via Age of Revolutions on June 3, 2024
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