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Photo of Abraham Lincoln in front of images of infrastructure and currency.

How the U.S. Paid for the Civil War

Lincoln's wartime governance had dire, and longstanding, economic consequences.
by Jeffrey Rogers Hummel via Reason on September 17, 2022
Charles Joseph Bonaparte formal portrait photograph.

The Architect of the FBI Was Napoleon’s Great-Nephew, Charles Bonaparte

A history of the bureau and its place in the federal government.
by Ronald G. Shafer via Retropolis on August 15, 2022
Black and white photo of workers opening bourbon barrels.

Bourbon Country

Examining the ingredients—time, grain, government regulations—that have made bourbon an enduring national favorite.
by Joseph Conforti, Varsha Venkatasubramanian, Seán S. McKeithan, Albert H. Tillson Jr., Patrick A. Lewis, Jack High, Clayton A. Coppin, Raymond Urban, Richard Mancke via JSTOR Daily on August 3, 2022
Political cartoon of Andrew Johnson holding a leaking kettle labeled "The Reconstructed South" towards a woman representing liberty and Columbia, carrying a baby representing the newly approved 14th Amendment.

The Pro-Democratic Fourteenth Amendment

At the heart of recent US Supreme Court decisions, the Fourteenth Amendment was framed to require free speech and free elections in the South.
by Garrett Epps, Livia Gershon via JSTOR Daily on July 22, 2022
President William Howard Taft signs New Mexico into statehood at the White House. The signing was witnessed by dignitaries on Jan. 6, 1912

Building Uncle Sam, Inc.

These Progressive Era Republicans wanted to run the Federal government like a business.
by Paul Moreno via Law & Liberty on May 25, 2022
The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building under construction.

“Supreme Court of Finance:” Democratic Legitimacy and the Development of the Federal Reserve System

What degree of legitimacy by voters does a public institution need in a democracy, and how much independence do experts in such an institution need to do their job?
by Armin Mattes via Starting Points on May 23, 2022
The U.S. Capitol building at night.

A Capital History

Washington has long been a disproportionately gay city—a mecca for clever, ambitious young men who want to escape their hometowns’ prying eyes.
by Bruce Bawer via Commentary on April 12, 2022
Cleveland-Stevenson Tariff Reform Portrait Handkerchief

Tax Regimes

Historian Robin Einhorn reflects on Americans’ complicated relationship to taxes, from the colonial period through the Civil War to the tax revolts of the 1980s.
by Robin Einhorn, Noam Maggor via Phenomenal World on March 24, 2022
Michikinikwa ("Little Turtle") statue by Douglas Hyde.

Native Prohibition in the Federal Courts

Over the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Congress enacted several laws restricting the sale of alcohol to Native Americans.
by Winston Bowman via Federal Judicial Center on March 1, 2022
WWII Advertisement that highlights price controls.

Price Controls, Black Markets, And Skimpflation: The WWII Battle Against Inflation

To control inflation during WWII, the U.S. government resorted to wide-ranging price controls. Unintended consequences may be the reason they aren't used today.
by Greg Rosalsky via NPR on February 8, 2022
Fast food with the seal of the president on the containers.

How the State Created Fast Food

Because of consistent government intervention in the industry, we might call fast food the quintessential cuisine of global capitalism.
by Alex Park via Current Affairs on January 25, 2022
African American man casting a ballot following the Fifteenth Amendment.

Echoes of 1891 in 2022

Using the congressional filibuster to prevent voting rights legislation isn't new. It has roots in the 19th century.
by Daniel W. Crofts via Muster on January 25, 2022
Painting of the constitutional convention

Federalism and the Founders

The question of how to balance state and national power was perhaps the single most important and most challenging question confronting the early republic.
by Allen C. Guelzo via National Affairs on January 7, 2022
Photograph of Joe Biden speaking at a podium with a sign for vaccines.gov in the background.

In Praise of One-Size-Fits-All

Critiques of vaccine mandates continue a neoliberal tradition of idolizing private choice at the expense of the public good.
by Lawrence B. Glickman via Boston Review on December 2, 2021
Congresswoman going on the Senate floor in Washington D.C.
partner

The Founders Constructed Our Government to Foster Inaction

Why Democrats have struggled to implement their agenda.
by Calvin Schermerhorn via Made By History on October 28, 2021
A woman walks next to a colorful mural of Patrice Lumumba.

Probing the Depths of the CIA’s Misdeeds in Africa

The CIA committed many crimes in the early days of post-independence Africa. But is it fair to call their interference “recolonization”?
by Alex Park via Africa Is A Country on October 15, 2021
A construction machine lifts giants stacks of paper money.

The U.S. Is Politically Bankrupt

For political reasons, powerful people don’t want the country to pay its bills. History shows all that could go wrong.
by Rebecca L. Spang via The Atlantic on October 8, 2021
William Burnet meeting with Native American leadership

The Native American Roots of the U.S. Constitution

The Iroquois, Shawnee, Cherokee, and other political formations generally separated military and civil leadership and guarded certain personal freedoms.
by Robert J. Miller, Livia Gershon via JSTOR Daily on September 15, 2021
Painting of George Washington on horseback, leading troops through the countryside to squash the Whiskey Rebellion.

Examining Public Opinion during the Whiskey Rebellion

This armed uprising in 1794, over taxation by the fledgling new government, threatened to destroy the new union within six years of the Constitution’s ratification.
by Jonathan Curran via Journal of the American Revolution on September 7, 2021
Biden in front of George Washington painting
partner

A Conflict Among the Founders is Still Shaping Infrastructure Debates in 2021

What role should the federal government play in building our infrastructure?
by Susan Nagel via Made By History on August 30, 2021
Members of the Osage Nation standing on the steps of a federal building.

The Disturbing History of How Conservatorships Were Used to Exploit and Swindle Native Americans

The discovery of oil and gas made members of the Osage Nation among the richest people in the world. But it also made them targets for exploitation.
by Andrea Seielstad via The Conversation on August 13, 2021
Pennsylvania Avenue

A City-State for The Nation

The fallout of the January 6th riot and its effect on D.C. statehood.
by Alan Lessoff via The Metropole on August 9, 2021
Graduation cap on pile of money
partner

Policymakers Created the Student Loan Industry — and The Debt Crisis

While they never intended for more than 45 million Americans to have this much debt, policymakers in the 1960s made fateful choices.
by Elizabeth Tandy Shermer via Made By History on August 5, 2021
Political cartoon of the U.S Capitol

The Liberals Who Weakened Trust in Government

How public interest groups inadvertently aided the right’s ascendency.
by Kim Phillips-Fein via The New Republic on August 2, 2021

Redlining, Race, and the Color of Money

Long after the end of explicit discrimination in the housing market, the federal government continued to manage risk for capital, perpetuating inequality.
by Garrett Dash Nelson via Dissent on July 8, 2021
A lightbulb with a virus inside

World War II’s Lesson for After the Pandemic

The U.S. needs another innovation dream team.
by Derek Thompson via The Atlantic on June 28, 2021

The Hidden Stakes of the Infrastructure Wars

The fight over the American Jobs Plan reflects a long history of competing visions of public works—and, most of all, who should benefit from rebuilding.
by David Alff via Boston Review on June 25, 2021
Bayard Rustin, A. Philip Randolph, and John Morsell hold a press conference in 1963

A Vision of Racial and Economic Justice

A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin knew the fates of the civil rights and labor movements were intertwined. The same is true today.
by Norman Hill, Velma Murphy Hill via Dissent on May 19, 2021
A map of the eastern US, with a line from Washington DC to St. Louis.

The Ill-Fated Idea to Move the Nation's Capital to St. Louis

In the years after the Civil War, some wanted a new seat of government that would be closer to the geographic center of a growing nation.
by Livia Gershon via Smithsonian on April 22, 2021
Screenshot of map showing post offices between 1848 and 1895.

Gossamer Network

An interactive digital history project chronicling how the U.S. Post was the underlying circuitry of western expansion.
by Cameron Blevins, Yan Wu, Steven Braun via Northeastern University on March 31, 2021
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