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Ivy League presidents testify before Congress about campus antisemitism.
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What Today’s University Presidents Can Learn From the 1st Modern Expulsion Over Campus Hate Speech

A 1990 case from Brown University was the first time a modern university expelled a student for a violation of a "hate speech code.”
Ronald Reagan signing anti-drug legislation as Nancy Reagan and legislators look on.
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America's War on Drugs Was Always Bipartisan—And Unwinnable

There was really only one big difference between liberal drug warriors and conservative ones.
A collage of Meir Kahane, a pistol, and the outline of Israel and Palestine on a yellow background.

The American Origins of Israel’s Armament Campaign

How Kahanism infiltrated the political mainstream.
Hand holding a gun painted like the American flag.

The Real Origins of America’s Gun Culture

“Gun Country” chronicles the transformation of guns from tangible weapons to ideological ammunition during the Cold War.
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.

A crowd of tourist superimposed over images of Salem attractions and a cemetery.

Salem’s Unholy Bargain: How Tragedy Became an Attraction

Is the cost worth the payoff?
Shadow of Jason Aldean performing on stage.

Jason Aldean's 'Small Town' Is Part of a Long Legacy with a Very Dark Side

The country song that pits idyllic country life against the corruption of the city is a well-worn trope. Aldean's song reveals the dark heart of the tradition.
Lithograph of African Americans gathering the dead and wounded from the Colfax Massacre in Louisiana, on April 13, 1873, originally published in Harper's Weekly.

The 1873 Colfax Massacre Was a Racist Attack on Black People’s Democratic Rights

In northern Louisiana, white supremacists slaughtered 150 African Americans, brutally thwarting their hopes for autonomy and self-governance.
Spiro Agnew and Richard Nixon.
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There Is a Precedent for Trump’s Indictment: Spiro Agnew

Spiro Agnew was the progenitor of Trump’s politics. He also resigned from office and accepted a plea deal to avoid jail time.
Richard Nixon discusses Vietnam with National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger and Deputy National Security Advisor Al Haig at Camp David, 1972.
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The "Madman Theory" Was Quintessential Nixon

The rash ruse was central to Nixon’s strategy to fight the Cold War, and can also tell us a good deal about the famously elusive ex-president himself.
Trump speaking to a crowd; Robert Welch at a podium.

How Far-Right Movements Die

The decline of the John Birch Society offers possible strategies for containing the MAGA movement.
Panting of a woman lounging with a book, titled “Dolce far niente” (The Sweetness of Doing Nothing), by Auguste Toulmouche, 1877.

We’re Distracted. That’s Nothing New.

Ever since Thoreau headed to Walden, our attention has been wandering.

Civil Rights Legislation Sparked Powerful Backlash that's Still Shaping American Politics

Conservatives and the GOP have mounted a decadeslong legal fight to turn the clock back on the political gains of the civil rights movement.
The Iraq flag waving in the wind.

Confronting the Iraq War

Melvyn Leffler’s book on the roots of the Iraq invasion demonstrates the pitfalls of excessive trust in one’s sources, especially when they're top policymakers.
A man in front of a "Banned Books" sign.

Nothing New Under the Sun

APAAS, Florida, and history.
Image of the conservative's idelic white nuclear family, wearing red baseball caps.

Why Conservatism Can Never Be “Populist”

Conservative “populism” has never been about egalitarianism, but about mobilizing support for traditional hierarchies.
Police officer Lane Anderson removes a Patriotic Front sticker from a stoplight outside the Liberian Restaurant in downtown Fargo, N.D.
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The Shared U.S.-Liberia History Now Shaping a North Dakota Community

Liberians in West Fargo trying to dodge racism are deeply woven into American history.
Collage of meat products emerging from Pat Buchanan's head.

How Food Became a Weapon in The Right’s Culture Wars

First came the politics of right-wing grievance. Then came the new foodie culture. Together, they combined to create one toxic food fight.
Pew Research chart showing rising earnings disparity between young adults with and without college degrees

Pushing Everyone Into College Was a Policy Response to Other Policy

None of it happened by mistake.
Baby in an old wicker stroller.
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The Imperative to Buy the Best Stroller

The baby stroller is only the most visible symbol of the ethos of consumer capitalism that saturates American pregnancy and parenthood.
Haitian soldiers hanging French soldiers, 1805.

"A Positive Evil"

Connecting the Haitian Revolution and abolition in the 1834 Tennessee Constitutional Convention.
Governor Ronald Reagan speaking to an audience about the higher education system.

The Origin of Student Debt

In 1970 Roger Freeman, who also worked for Nixon, revealed the right’s motivation for coming decades of attacks on higher education.
Hitchhikers sitting on a road, thumbs extended.

That Ol’ Thumb: Hitchhiking

A review of "Driving With Strangers: What Hitchhiking Tells Us About Humanity."
Wilma Mankiller on a quarter

Reconsidering Wilma Mankiller

As the Cherokee Nation’s first female chief’s image is minted onto a coin, her full humanity should be examined.
Members of the John Birch Society pledging allegiance to the flag at a meeting, Chicago, 1961.

The Birchers & the Trumpers

A new biography of Robert Welch traces the origins and history of the anti-Communist John Birch Society and provides historical perspective on the Trump era.
Samantha Hull looks for books at the Ephrata Public Library on March 2. Hull has been fighting book bans as a school librarian in Lancaster County, Pa., where conservatives are pushing to remove books that touch on gender identity and racism.
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Conservatives Long Ago Lost The War Over America’s Public Schools

As conservative groups give up on public schools, the fight today is about looting public resources.
Guinan Phillips, 31, attends a candlelit memorial for victims of the mass shooting at Tops supermarket in Buffalo. (Heather Ainsworth for The Washington Post)
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The Tie Between the Buffalo Shooting and Banning Abortion

The two may seem unconnected, but a centuries-long history of panic about White birth rates binds them together.
Paul Ryan against a background of graph paper and a dotted line.

The Struggle for the Soul of the GOP

Is the Republican Party compatible with democracy?
Person wearing rainbow mask, in front of signs asking Disney to oppose "Don't Say Gay" law
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It’s Nothing New for Florida to Claim Anti-LGBTQ Measures Will Protect Children

How political figures have framed anti-LGBTQ bigotry as being pro-child and pro-parent.
Lithograph of Eastern State Penitentiary from above.

The Invention of Incarceration

Prisons have been controversial since their beginnings in the late 1700s — why do they keep failing to live up to expectations?
A stand from 1925, selling William Jennings Bryan's books, featuring a sign reading "Anti-Evolution League: The Conflict, Hell and The High School"

Why the School Wars Still Rage

From evolution to anti-racism, parents and progressives have clashed for a century over who gets to tell our origin stories.

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