elitism — Bunk History

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Political cartoon of U.S. President Martin Van Buren sitting on a fence as men on each side try to pull him toward them.

The Spirit of Party and Faction

On factional strife in the Early Republic, and why parties themselves were universally despised.

via BackStory on June 13, 2014

Founding Fathers, Founding Villains

A review of a handful of new books that embody the new liberal originalism.

by William Hogeland via Boston Review on September 1, 2012

Fisher Ames, Founding Father and arch-foe of democracy.

Died on the 4th of July

Fisher Ames’s philosophy can be summed up as follows: the “power of the people, if uncontroverted, is licentious and mobbish.”

by Stephen B. Tippins via The American Conservative on July 3, 2012

Chart describing links between writers, painters, muses, and more in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Friends, Lovers, and Family

The interconnected circles of writers, painters, muses, and more.

via Lapham’s Quarterly on April 1, 2010

American Pastoral

Reflections on the ahistorical, aristocratic, and romanticist approach to "nature" elevated by John Muir, and by his admirer, Ken Burns.

by Charles Petersen via n+1 on February 26, 2010

Donald Trump shakes the hand of a border patrol officer while a line of others waits to meet him.

State of Exception

National security governance, then and now.

by David Klion via The Drift on June 24, 2025

Graphic of a nickel displays the words "nullification," "compact," and "sever" on Jefferson's head.

Thomas Jefferson Would Like A Word With You

Thomas Jefferson's limited government ideal quickly conflicted with the U.S. Constitution and the dominant Federalist Party, prompting a radical proposal.

by Michael Liss via 3 Quarks Daily on June 16, 2025

William F. Buckley Jr. surrounded by piles of books in his office.

What Made William F. Buckley So Unusual

The author of a new biography talks about the conservative journalist’s life and legacy.

by Sam Tanenhaus, Cullen Murphy via The Atlantic on June 1, 2025

Cover of book. Red text on a blue background with stickers of Karl Marx's face arranged like the 50 stars.

Marx: The Fourth Boom

Were you to vanish Marx from every library, you’d destroy the central interlocutor around which most of capitalism is built.

by Devin Thomas O’Shea via Los Angeles Review of Books on May 27, 2025

African American boy watches a parade of white people from a distance.

The Great Resegregation

The Trump administration’s attacks on DEI are aimed at reversing the civil rights movement.

by Adam Serwer via The Atlantic on February 22, 2025

Group of white people carrying a sign that thanks Donald Trump

Make South Africa Great Again?

How the country’s post-apartheid politics may inform the world view of Elon Musk and Donald Trump.

by Isaac Chotiner, William Shoki via The New Yorker on February 19, 2025

Photograph of Benito Mussolini

Gold and Brown

Libertarianism, fascism, and democracy.

by John Ganz via Unpopular Front on February 10, 2025

David Rubenstein

King David

Carlyle Group founder David Rubenstein has cultivated a reputation as a well-meaning advocate of history education. What does that image mask?

by Rick Perlstein via The American Prospect on December 24, 2024

An eagle in its nest of the American flag, which holds eggs representing the states.

From Woke to Solidarity

On two new books that critique identity politics and seek a new vision of political culture.

by Michael S. Roth via Los Angeles Review of Books on December 24, 2024

Ku Kluz Klan imperial wizard Hiram Wesley Evans.

Making Sense of the Second Ku Klux Klan

Understanding the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan in the early twentieth century gives insight into the roots of today’s reactionary activists and policymakers.

by Chad Pearson via Jacobin on December 22, 2024

A cartoon depicting Charles Guiteau.

Echoes of Rage

Our new age of violence looks a lot like the Gilded Age.

by George Dillard via Looking Through The Past on December 18, 2024

Kamala Harris

The Democrats’ “Opportunity” Pitch Is a Dead End

The meritocratic pitch was emblematic of Democrats’ long march away from working-class voters.

by Lily Geismer via Jacobin on December 11, 2024

Virginia Tracy.

Is Virginia Tracy the First Great American Film Critic?

The actress, screenwriter, and novelist’s reviews and essays from 1918-19 display a comprehensive grasp of movie art and a visionary sense of its future.

by Richard Brody via The New Yorker on November 25, 2024

Protestors at Oxford University, with one holding a sign that reads "End Racism Now."

What Is Decolonisation?

There’s more talk of decolonisation than ever, while true independence for former colonies has faded from view. Why?

by Lydia Walker via Aeon on November 21, 2024

Donald Trump

Donald Trump Would Be Weaker the Second Time Around

Donald Trump wants the ideology of William McKinley and Gilded Age Republicanism, but with a totally different social base. It won’t work.

by Paul Heidman via Jacobin on October 23, 2024

Senator J.D. Vance and Patrick Deneen at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Toward a Christian Postliberal Left

A truly Christian postliberalism would imagine and enact an alternative modernity with a different standard of progress.

by Eugene McCarraher via Commonweal on October 22, 2024

How 'The Campus' Captured Our Imaginations—And Our Politics

At least since the 1960s, a warped vision of college life has shaped U.S. culture and politics.

by Adrian Daub via Made By History on September 3, 2024

Drawing showing teacher in front of the blackboard while students look bored in the back of the classroom.

Why Professors Can’t Teach

For as long as universities have existed, academics have struggled to impart their knowledge to students. The failing is fixable—if Washington demands it.

by Jonathan Zimmerman via Washington Monthly on August 25, 2024

Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano, Madonna and Child with Saint Jerome and Saint John the Baptist, ca 1492–95

How Renaissance Art Found Its Way to American Museums

We take for granted the Titians and Botticellis that hang in galleries across the U.S., little aware how and why they were acquired.

by Ashley Couto via JSTOR Daily on August 14, 2024

Computer terminal with BASIC code on screen, surrounded by a cartoon potion, cauldron, and lips wearing a wizard's hat, in a magical lair.

Back to BASIC—the Most Consequential Programming Language in the History of Computing

Coding was a preserve of elites, until BASIC hit the streets.

by Clive Thompson via Wired on July 29, 2024

Donald Trump wearing 2000 "America First Pat Buchanan" sticker.

The Crack-Up

John Ganz’s “When the Clock Broke” renders the signal political battles of the present in an entirely new light.

by John Ganz, Chris Lehmann via The Baffler on June 21, 2024

How America’s Rich Legacy of Fear and Hatred Fuels the Conspiracy Theories of Today

Panic about Catholics, Freemasons, and, later, Jews, is deeply woven into American history, and forms the basis of our fertile culture of conspiracy theorizing.

by Arthur Goldwag via Talking Points Memo on June 21, 2024

Aziz Rana.

Aziz Rana Wants Us to Stop Worshipping the Constitution

A conversation with the legal scholar on why it is unusual that the Constitution is core to American national identity.

by Aziz Rana, Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins via The Nation on June 3, 2024

The Bahá’í House of Worship, a tall, ornate building made of concrete, illuminated against a cloudy sky.

The Beauty of Concrete

Why are buildings today simple and austere, while buildings of the past were ornate and elaborately ornamented? The answer is not the cost of labor.

by Samuel Hughes via Works In Progress on May 17, 2024

Stanford Law School.

Why the Right’s Mythical Version of the Past Dominates When It Comes to Legal “History”

They’re invested in legal education, creating an originalist industrial complex with outsize influence.

by Saul Cornell via Slate on May 14, 2024

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