dissent — Bunk History

Viewing 91–120 of 192 results. Go to first page

Huey Long

How ‘the Kingfish’ Turned Corporations into People

Seventy-five years before Citizens United, the Supreme Court ruled that newspapers were entitled to First Amendment protections.

by Adam Winkler via New York Review of Books on February 28, 2018

A painting of George Whitefield preaching to a crowd.

Darkness Falls on the Land of Light

Divisions in society and religion that still exist today resulted from the "Great Awakenings" of the 18th Century.

by Douglas Winiarski via American Heritage on February 1, 2018

Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise their fists during a 1968 Olympics award ceremony

The Black Athlete in America

Colin Kaepernick continues a long tradition of athletes using their celebrity to protest America's racial inequality.

by Matt Spolar, Brian Kamerzel via Retro Report on December 21, 2017

"Slave Ship" painting (1840) by J M W Turner. Courtesy the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Does Locke’s Entanglement With Slavery Undermine His Philosophy?

John Locke took part in administering the slave-owning colonies. Does that make him, and liberalism itself, hypocritical?

by Holly Brewer via Aeon on December 12, 2017

Watson Heston cartoon of two people at a crossroads--one direction is the "Free Thought Road" which leads to truth, and the other direction is "Orthodox Road" and the "Vale of Tears."

Atheists in the Pantheon

Leigh Eric Schmidt profiles the nineteenth century's notable "village atheists."

by Joseph Blankholm via Public Books on August 14, 2017

Chelsea Manning photo

How The Espionage Act Became a Tool of Repression

This isn’t all history, of course. The Espionage Act is still on the books: Chelsea Manning was charged under it in 2011.

by Geoffrey R. Stone, Matthew Wills via JSTOR Daily on June 23, 2017

Ruth Bader Ginsburg sitting on a chair in a room with a fireplace

How Ruth Bader Ginsburg Has Moved the Supreme Court

Despite her path-braking work as a litigator before the Court, she doesn't believe that large-scale social change should come from the courts.

by Jeffrey Toobin via The New Yorker on March 11, 2013

Illustration of angry communist with caption "Primer for Free Men."

I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill

History books are rewritten to focus on the underdog. Surely that is a victory for the common people...or is it?

by Stephen Duncombe via The Baffler on January 13, 2013

John Harvard statue by Daniel Chester French.

Reading Puritans and the Bard

Without the bawdy world of Falstaff and Prince Hal and of Shakespeare’s jesters, there would have been nothing for those dissenting Puritans to dissent from.

by Mark A. Peterson via Commonplace on October 1, 2006

A picture of a woman at a protest against Islamophobia.

The Most Patriotic Act

A warning from September 2001 about government overreach in the name of national security.

by Eric Foner via The Nation on September 20, 2001

The Johnson Party

An 1866 essay presents Andrew Johnson as "the virtual leader of the Southern reactionary party."

by E. P. Whipple via The Atlantic on September 1, 1866

Book cover for The Invention of Design by Maggie Gram features a phone cord snaking around text.

Irrelevant at Best, or Else Complicit

The state of design in 1970.

by Maggie Gram via HNN on June 3, 2025

Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn.

Blacklists and Civil Liberties

On the Second Red Scare and the lessons that it can provide for us today.

by Clay Risen, Miguel Petrosky via Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera on May 13, 2025

Revolutionary War reenactors near Lexington, Massachusetts.

The King We Overthrew — and the King Some Now Want

Americans need to reconnect with their innate dislike of arbitrary rule.

by Philip Bump via Washington Post on April 17, 2025

Donald Trump and the presidential seal in an empty theater.

The Hoax that Spawned an Age of American Conspiracism

Donald Trump and Elon Musk are just the latest populists to weaponise fears of a sinister “deep state”.

by Phil Tinline via New Statesman on April 2, 2025

The Sum of Our Wisdom

We are told that we are a Calvinist culture, which means very little, and none of that good.

by Marilynne Robinson via The Hedgehog Review on March 18, 2025

A woman with a rifle, superimposed on an American flag.

From Philly to Derry: On the Americans Who Armed the IRA During The Troubles

Vincent Conlon’s secret life in the United States as an operative and gun-running Irish rebel.

by Ali Watkins via Literary Hub on March 11, 2025

How the Red Scare Reshaped American Politics

At its height, the political crackdown felt terrifying and all-encompassing. What can we learn from how the movement unfolded—and from how it came to an end?

by Beverly Gage via The New Yorker on March 10, 2025

Actress moves away from a microphone held a red hand.

How the Red Scare Shaped American Television

The fear of communism silenced actors, writers and producers, altering the entertainment industry for decades.

by Carol Stabile via PBS on February 28, 2025

Richard Nixon surrounded by thumbs up emojis.

Hero of 2024: A Half-Century Later, Richard Nixon Was Finally Vindicated

Nixon was quietly vindicated by the Supreme Court in its Trump v. United States. A half-century later, the Supreme Court made clear that he was right all along.

by Dan Friedman via Mother Jones on December 27, 2024

How Would Kash Patel Compare to J. Edgar Hoover?

If Trump’s pick to lead the F.B.I. gets confirmed, the Bureau could be politicized in ways that even its notorious first director would have rejected.

by Beverly Gage via The New Yorker on December 11, 2024

Protest encampment at University of California Berkeley.

The Free Speech Movement at Sixty and Today’s Unfree Universities

Can speech be free when billionaires buy influence on campus?

by Robert Cohen via Academe on December 4, 2024

A painting of a group of Puritans walking through a snowy forest, with the men carrying rifles.

The Puritans Were Book Banners, But They Weren’t Sexless Sourpusses

From early New England to the present day, censors have acted out of fear, not prudishness.

by Peter C. Mancall via Zócalo Public Square on November 25, 2024

Berkeley students and protesters gather during a protest and celebration at Berkeley, California in 1969.

The Left’s Reversal on Free Speech

Historically, liberals defended the First Amendment and our free speech rights. Now, too many on the left seek to undermine constitutional protections.

by Patrick M. Garry via Law & Liberty on November 18, 2024

You Had to Be There

Whose side is the war correspondent on?

by Zoë Hu via The Baffler on November 5, 2024

Advocates of student loan forgiveness protest outside the Supreme Court.

Reflections on the Geopolitical Roots of U.S. Student Loan Debt

The emergence of student loan debt in the late 1960s can be situated within a broader shift towards neoliberal governance.

by Britain Hopkins via Process: A Blog for American History on October 29, 2024

William Rehnquist

The Late Supreme Court Chief Who Haunts Today’s Right-Wing Justices

William Rehnquist went from a lonely dissenter to an institutionalist chief—and his opinions are all the rage among the court’s current conservatives.

by Duncan Hosie via The New Republic on October 23, 2024

Man burning a picture of Abraham Lincoln.

City on Fire

The night violent anti-government conspirators sowed chaos in the heart of Manhattan.

by Betsy Golden Kellem via The Atavist on September 24, 2024

A drawing of a naked woman standing in front of a crowd of Anabaptists and Quakers.

The Naked Quakers

Today, the international feminist group FEMEN uses nudity as part of its protests. But appearing naked in public was also a tactic used by early dissenters.

by Katrina Gulliver, Jean-Pierre Cavaillé via JSTOR Daily on September 9, 2024

Lyndon B. Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson visit the Fletcher family in Inez, Kentucky, in 1964.

Who’s to Blame for White Poverty?

Dismantling it requires getting the story right.

by Elizabeth Catte via Boston Review on September 5, 2024

brought to you by

© Bunk History