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How Gotham Gave Us Trump

Ever wonder how a lifelong urbanite can resent cities as much as Donald Trump does? First you have to understand ’70s and ’80s New York.
by Michael Kruse via Politico Magazine on June 30, 2017

Bathing in Controversy

For a century, school showers have anticipated the current debate about bathrooms.
by J. Y. Chua via The Atlantic on June 2, 2017

I Don't Care How Good His Paintings Are, He Still Belongs in Prison

George W. Bush committed an international crime that killed hundreds of thousands of people.
by Nathan J. Robinson via Current Affairs on April 19, 2017

Divided We Fall

We need a radical solution to avert the disintegration of our political system.
by Ganesh Sitaraman via The New Republic on April 10, 2017
Exhibit

Fear Itself

We're not generally at our best when frightened. It's no surprise, then, that some of the ugliest episodes in American history (but also, some pretty great films) have been driven by fear.

The Bitter History of Law and Order in America

It has stifled suffrage, blamed immigrants for chaos, and suppressed civil rights. It's also how Donald Trump views the entire world.
by Andrea Pitzer via Longreads on April 6, 2017

The History of Outlawing Abortion in America

Abortion was first criminalized in the mid 1900s amidst concerns that too many white women were ending their pregnancies.
by Nicola Beisel, Tamara Kay, Livia Gershon via JSTOR Daily on March 10, 2017
A young thomas edison poses next to a phonograph

How 19th Century Techno-Skeptics Ridiculed Thomas Edison

At his peak, newspapers loved to tease the inventor. They also feared him.
by Cara Giaimo via Atlas Obscura on February 28, 2017
Border patrol guarding a group of men sitting on the ground.

The Long History of Deportation Scare Tactics at the U.S.-Mexico Border

The precedents for Trump’s hyped-up immigration crackdown.
by Kelly Lytle Hernández, Cora Currier via The Intercept on February 26, 2017

Democracy Without the People

Trump inherits a branch of government already well equipped to undermine democracy.
by Thea Riofrancos via n+1 on February 6, 2017
partner

When Dungeons & Dragons Set Off a ‘Moral Panic’

D&D attracted millions of players, along with accusations by some religious figures that the game fostered demon worship and a belief in witchcraft and magic.
by Clyde Haberman via Retro Report on April 17, 2016

How Jackie Robinson Helped Defeat a Trump-Like Candidate

The baseball great warned of lasting repercussion for black voters during Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign.
by Matt Delmont via The Atlantic on March 19, 2016
Slave revolt in Haiti.

The History of the United States’ First Refugee Crisis

Fleeing the Haitian revolution, whites and free blacks were viewed with suspicion by American slaveholders, including Thomas Jefferson.
by Nicholas Foreman via Smithsonian on January 5, 2016

Close the Gate? Refugees, Radicals, and the Red Scare of 1919

If radicalism meant insecurity, and immigration meant radicalism, the government's course was clear.
by Andrew Lipsett via We're History on November 30, 2015

Anti-Syrian Muslim Refugee Rhetoric Mirrors Calls to Reject Jews During Nazi Era

The fears that were conjured by nativists 80 years ago are chillingly similar to what we're hearing today.
by Lee Fang via The Intercept on November 18, 2015
Political cartoon depicting children recoiling from Catholic bishops crawling onto the beach with their robes and hats making them look like crocodiles.

When America Hated Catholics

In the late 19th century, statesmen feared that Catholics were something less than civilized (and less than white).
by Joshua Zeitz via Politico Magazine on September 23, 2015

The Confusing and At-Times Counterproductive 1980s Response to the AIDS Epidemic

A new exhibit looks at the posters sent out by non-profits and the government in response to the spread of AIDS.
by Natasha Geiling via Smithsonian on December 4, 2013

The Myth of the War of the Worlds Panic

Orson Welles’ infamous 1938 radio program did not touch off nationwide hysteria. Why does the legend persist?
by Michael J. Socolow, Jefferson Pooley via Slate on October 28, 2013
The media fueled fears of a parrot-fever pandemic; then the story went into reverse. Illustration by Laurent Cilluffo.

The Spread

Jill Lepore on disease outbreaks of pandemic proportions, media scares, and the parrot-fever panic of 1930.
by Jill Lepore via The New Yorker on May 25, 2009

Fear of Frying

A brief history of Trans Fats.
by David Schleifer via n+1 on May 21, 2007
George W. Bush at a press conference on Iraq, March 3, 2003.

The First Casualty

The selling of the Iraq war.
by Spencer Ackerman, John B. Judis via The New Republic on June 30, 2003
Cartoon depictinf a man pouring a bowl of sugar babies in front of a group of onlookers.

Birchismo

Culture-shocked Americans in the 1960s were all too happy to take directions from the John Birch Society: take an extreme right and drive forever.
by Dan Kelly via The Baffler on December 16, 1999

Bitter Harvest

The fear and hysteria that led to Japanese interment during World War II was manufactured for corporate profit.
by A. V. Krebs via Washington Post on February 2, 1992
Senator Joseph R. McCarthy speaking

The Paranoid Style in American Politics

It had been around a long time before the Radical Right discovered it.
by Richard Hofstadter via Harper’s on November 1, 1964
Robert Welch, founder of the John Birch Society, standing next to a portrait of the group's namesake, Captain John Morrison Birch.

December 9, 1958: The John Birch Society Is Founded

“Together with other ‘know nothing’ organizations scattered through the country, it represents a basic, continuing phenomenon in American society.”
by Richard Kreitner, Hans Engh via The Nation on December 9, 1958
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
W.E.B. DuBois, seated in garden reading book, while Shirley Graham DuBois waters plants.

How Black Marxists Have Understood Racial Oppression

Black Marxist thought emphasizes the centrality of capitalism to racial oppression and the destructiveness of that oppression for all workers.
by Jeff Goodwin, Jonah Birch via Jacobin on February 17, 2025
A propaganda poster of an American flag on fire and white American citizens struggling against Communist officials, with the caption: "Is this tomorrow? America under Communism!"

What Happened the Last Time a President Purged the Bureaucracy

The impact can linger not just for years but decades.
by Clay Risen via Politico Magazine on February 6, 2025
Rep. Stephen Horn, examines a chart showing his grades for each agency's progress on the Y2K computer problem.
partner

What to Know About Y2K, Before You Watch 'Y2K'

The Year 2000 computer problem continues to nag at us 25 years later.
by Zachary Loeb via Made By History on December 18, 2024
Peeling paint.

On “White Slavery” and the Roots of the Contemporary Sex Trafficking Panic

The ruling class used false claims about white women’s sexual virtue to regulate sexuality. But the “white slavery” panic was also about race, class and labor.
by Chanelle Gallant, Elene Lam via Literary Hub on December 12, 2024
Political cartoon depicting 1856 presidential candidates

The First Punch

There are uncanny parallels between the elections of 2024 and 1856, with one big exception: in 1856, it was the political left that was on the offensive.
by Matthew Karp via Harper’s on December 5, 2024
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