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Line graph comparing executive actions over presidents' first 100 days in office.

Trump in Action: Comparing the Pace of Trump's Executive Orders to Recent Presidents

How do Trump's first 100 days measure up?
via The American Presidency Project on April 29, 2017

The Debate Over Executive Orders Began With Teddy Roosevelt's Mad Passion for Conservation

Teddy used nearly 10 times as many executive orders as his predecessor. The repercussions are still felt today.
by Lorraine Boissoneault via Smithsonian on April 17, 2017
Exhibitions at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C.

A Truly Patriotic Education Tells Many Stories

Trump’s executive orders can’t define diversity out of history.
by David M. Perry via Foreign Policy on March 31, 2025
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.

‘It Reminds You of a Fascist State’: Smithsonian Institution Braces for Trump Rewrite of US History

Normally staid historians sound alarm at authoritarian grasping for control of the premier US museum complex.
by David Smith via The Guardian on March 30, 2025
Civil rights lawyers including Thurgood Marshall and Constance Baker Motley.

Trump's Attack on Lawyers and Law Firms Takes a Page Out of the Southern 1950s Playbook

American authoritarians fear the uniquely American power of litigation.
by Sherrilyn Ifill via Sherrilyn's Newsletter on March 24, 2025
Soldier at the US-Mexico border.

Trump’s Doubly Flawed "Invasion" Theory

How Trump's migration-as-invasion theory might serve as a pretext for claiming vast presidential powers and upending constitutional norms.
by Elizabeth Goitein, Katherine Yon Ebright via Just Security on February 19, 2025
Silhouettes of Energy Secretary Chris Wright, President Donald Trump, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in the Oval Office in the dark.

The Making of Emergencies

For centuries, theorists of liberal governance have worried about how emergencies can unfetter executive power. Trump has given those fears new urgency.
by Caroline Elkins via New York Review of Books on February 16, 2025
Document stamped "classified."

Trump Breaks Washington’s Secrecy Addiction

The president is right to release the Kennedy files.
by James W. Carden via The American Conservative on February 14, 2025

Trump May Wish to Abolish the Past. We Historians Will Not.

Commentary from the heads of two prominent historical associations on Trump’s recent executive order on “radical indoctrination” in schools.
by David W. Blight, James Grossman, Beth English via The New Republic on February 6, 2025

Why Did I Hike 50 Miles Through the Jersey Suburbs? Teddy Roosevelt Told Me To

The 26th president once demanded that military personnel be able to walk 50 miles in 20 hours. I set off on an ill-fated mission to see if I could do it myself.
by Tom Vanderbilt via Outside on December 20, 2023
The Devil Presenting St. Augustine with The Book of Vices by Michael Pacher, 1471-1475

St. Augustine's 9/11 Anniversary

Lord, implored President Biden, let us "turn the page" on the War on Terror. Just not yet.
by Spencer Ackerman via Forever Wars on September 11, 2023
J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Oppenheimer, Nullified and Vindicated

The inventor of the atomic bomb, the subject of Christopher Nolan’s new film, was the chief celebrity victim of the national trauma known as McCarthyism.
by Kai Bird via The New Yorker on July 7, 2023
Anna Rosenberg talking to Lyndon B. Johnson.
partner

One of the Most Important Women in American History Has Been Forgotten

Anna Rosenberg had massive influence in American politics for 40 years. Remembering her story offers a guide for solving problems today.
by Christopher C. Gorham via Made By History on May 30, 2023
Illustration overlaying an image of Lucille Brown and a group of women over an image of Howard University

Higher Ed and the Policing of Memory

Why universities must help lead the battle to defend and expand critical race theory.
by Danielle Conway via The Forum on August 8, 2022
Cecil B. Moore, president of the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP, speaks to people gathered at the Reyburn Plaza construction site for the Municipal Services building.
partner

Northern Civil Rights and Republican Affirmative Action

One focus of the 1960s struggle for civil rights in the North were the construction industries of Philadelphia, New York and Cleveland.
by Thomas J. Sugrue, Matthew Wills via JSTOR Daily on March 28, 2022
Artistic painting showing President Truman (depicted with glasses) in the foreground, and a sketch of President Biden in the background. The two figures are surrounded by America's colors and stars from the American flag.

What Joe Biden Can Learn From Harry Truman

His approval rating hit historic lows, his party was fractious, crises were everywhere. But Truman rescued his presidency, and his legacy.
by John Dickerson via The Atlantic on March 1, 2022
A red, white, and blue star over a cropped portrait of James Madison.

America Must Become a Democracy

The authors of the Constitution feared mass participation would unsettle government, but it’s the privileged minority that has proved destabilizing.
by David Frum via The Atlantic on February 15, 2021
Donald Trump seen through a window reflecting a fence.
partner

President Trump’s Immigration Suspension Has Nothing to Do With Coronavirus

Restrictionists have long sought to cut U.S. immigration — to zero.
by Carly Goodman via Made By History on April 22, 2020
Senators Joseph McCarthy and Kenneth Wherry.

The Lavender Scare: When the U.S. Government Persecuted Employees for Being Gay

From 1947 until the 1990s, an estimated 10,000 LGBTQ people were pushed out of government and military positions.
by S. E. Smith via Mental Floss on January 22, 2019

Truman Declared an Emergency When He Felt Thwarted. Trump Should Know: It Didn’t End Well.

Truman seized control of the country’s steel mills during the Korean War. It led to a landmark ruling by the Supreme Court.
by Steve Hendrix via Retropolis on January 11, 2019

Can Trump Really End Birthright Citizenship?

Not directly. But it's more complicated than you think.
by Imani Perry via Colorlines on October 30, 2018
partner

How a Stroke of the Pen Changed the Army Forever

The most important civil rights achievement didn't come from Congress or the Court. It came from Harry Truman.
by Cornelius L. Bynum via Made By History on July 26, 2017

What Will Future Historians Say About President Trump's First 100 Days? Here Are 11 Guesses

Experts weigh in on how historians of the future may assess President Trump's achievements after his first 100 days in office.
by Ibram X. Kendi, David McCullough, Timothy Naftali, George H. Nash, Anne E. Parsons, Heather Ann Thompson, Julie M. Weise, Alice S. Yang, Kyle G. Volk, Pablo A. Piccato, Roger Pilon via TIME on April 27, 2017

How Woodrow Wilson’s Propaganda Machine Changed American Journalism

The government's suppression of press freedom was a major component of its attempts to build support for the war effort
by Christopher B. Daly via The Conversation on April 27, 2017

Is Trump the New Teddy Roosevelt?

Trump's insistence on national solidarity, rejection of globalism, and demand for total patriotism channel Teddy Roosevelt.
by Stephen Beale via The American Conservative on March 20, 2017

Reliving Injustice 75 Years Later: Executive Order 9066 Then and Now

The lessons of Japanese interment for policy makers today.
by Karen Inouye via AHA Today on February 17, 2017

When Presidents Think About Defying the Courts

When President Trump contemplates violating court orders, he joins a longer list of presidents.
by Jeff Shesol via The New Yorker on February 9, 2017
Immigrants from Europe pose for a photograph upon their arrival at Ellis Island (1913).

First, They Excluded the Irish

Trump may block entry to foreigners who need public benefits—a proposal rooted in 19th-century laws targeting poor immigrants.
by Hidetaka Hirota, Emma Green via The Atlantic on February 2, 2017

We’ve Been Here Before: Historians Annotate and Analyze Immigration Ban's Place in History

Six historians unpack the meaning of President Trump's controversial executive order.
by Angilee Shah via PRI's The World on February 1, 2017
Lighter falling onto a pile of books.

What If History Died by Sanctioned Ignorance?

We must mobilize now to defend our profession, not only with research and teaching but in the realm of politics and public persuasion.
by David W. Blight via The New Republic on August 7, 2025
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