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President Madison ending the Embargo Act cartoon

James Madison and the Debilitating American Tendency to Make Everything About the Constitution

The U.S. Constitution was the reason for Madison and Hamilton's breakup.
by William Hogeland via Hogeland's Bad History on October 11, 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
Painting of Lincoln and his cabinet by M.S. Carpenter, 1863.

Did the Constitution Pave the Way to Emancipation?

In his new book, "The Crooked Path to Abolition," James Oakes argues that the Constitution was an antislavery document.
by Richard Kreitner via The Nation on October 6, 2021
Image of John C. Calhoun

How Slavery Haunts Today’s Big Debates About Federal Spending

John C. Calhoun knew what a strong federal government might do.
by Ariel Ron via Slate on September 22, 2021
Photo of Jefferson Davis

The Southern Slaveholders Dreamed of a Slaveholding Empire

Antebellum slaveholders weren't content with an economic and social system based on trafficking in human flesh in the South alone.
by Arvind Dilawar, Kevin Waite via Jacobin on September 21, 2021
Luther Martin
partner

For Constitution Day, Let's Toast the Losers of the Convention

Anti-federalist Luther Martin's agenda failed at the Constitutional Convention, but his criticisms of the Founders may still resonate with us today.
by Richard Hall via HNN on September 19, 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
Painting of the Continental Congress

The Pursuit of Happiness: New Approaches to the American Revolutionary Past

A new way to think about the American Revolution.
by Kevin Diestelow via Journal of the History of Ideas Blog on June 28, 2021
Book cover of "When Good Government Meant Big Government," with text and red and blue stripes in the style of campaign signs.

When Good Government Meant Big Government

An interview with Jesse Tarbert about the history of the American state, “big government,” and the legacy of government reform efforts.
by Jesse Tarbert via Law & History Review on June 16, 2021
The plough, the loom and the anvil book drawing

In the Common Interest

How a grassroots movement of farmers laid the foundation for state intervention in the economy, challenging the slaveholding South.
by Nic Johnson, Chris Hong, Robert Manduca via Boston Review on May 18, 2021
A map of Georgia's Yazoo land divided between companies.

How the Yazoo Land Scandal Changed American History

Without the now-obscure land investment affair, Georgia might have been a "super state."
by Frank Jacobs via Big Think on April 19, 2021
President Biden in a warehouse
partner

Government Has Always Picked Winners and Losers

A welfare state doesn't distort the market; it just makes government aid fairer.
by David M. P. Freund via Made By History on March 29, 2021
John C. Calhoun

American Heretic, American Burke

A review of Robert Elder's new biography of John C. Calhoun.
by Allen C. Guelzo via The New Criterion on February 4, 2021
Ulysses S. Grant statue in front of the capitol
partner

Grant — Not Lincoln or Roosevelt — May Hold the Key to Biden’s Success

Biden needs to stare down White supremacy, which requires strenuous enforcement of the laws.
by Judith Giesberg via Made By History on February 3, 2021
Black and White photo of demonstrators

When Medicare Helped Kill Jim Crow

By making health care broadly available, the government helps ensure our freedom.
by Mike Konczal via The Nation on January 19, 2021
Alexander Hamilton on the ten dollar bill

What We Still Get Wrong About Alexander Hamilton

Far from a partisan for free markets, the Founding Father insisted on the need for economic planning. We need more of that vision today.
by Michael Busch, Christian Parenti via Boston Review on December 14, 2020
Book cover for The Two Faces of American Freedom

The Two Faces of American Freedom, Ten Years Later: Part One

On the ten year anniversary of Aziz Rana's book, Henry Brooks interviews him on his influential book and what it might teach us about the legacies of populism.
by Henry Brooks, Aziz Rana via LPE Project on December 14, 2020

Is Freedom White?

In our current politics we must be attentive to how talk of American freedom has long been connected to the presumed right of whites to dominate everyone else.
by Jefferson Cowie via Boston Review on September 23, 2020
A pen and ink portrait of Alexander Hamilton as Treasury Secretary.

A New Hamilton Book Looks to Reclaim His Vision for the Left

In “Radical Hamilton,” Christian Parenti argues that the left should use Alexander Hamilton’s mythologized status to drive home his full agenda.
by Ryan Grim via The Intercept on August 4, 2020
Painting of a worried child and a despairing mother.

With Friends Like These

On early American attempts to kick out foreigners.
by Julia Rose Kraut via Lapham’s Quarterly on August 4, 2020

Standing on the Crater of a Volcano

In 1920, James Weldon Johnson went to Washington, armed with census data, to fight rampant voter suppression across the American South.
by Dan Bouk via Census Stories, USA on July 27, 2020
Black and white photo of three African-American men with signs that state, "I am a man," as a military tank rolls through the street

Insurrection in the Eye of the Beholder

The Insurrection Act of 1807, which Trump has threatened to invoke, is the linchpin of several iconic events in African American history.
by Hawa Allan via The Baffler on June 2, 2020
Book cover of "Republican Reversal."

Conservative Ideology and the Environment

“Big money alone does not fully explain the Republican embrace of the gospel of more.”
by Jonathan H. Adler via Regulation on June 1, 2020
partner

One Parallel for the Coronavirus Crisis? The Great Depression

“The idea that the federal government would be providing emergency relief and emergency work was extraordinary,” one sociologist said. “And people liked it.”
by Livia Gershon via JSTOR Daily on May 20, 2020
Trump at a press conference.
partner

Covid-19 Needs Federal Leadership, Not Authoritarianism from Trump

Official responses to the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 shows that the refusal to accept responsibility can have catastrophic consequences.
by Grace Mallon via Made By History on April 14, 2020
Propaganda poster from World War II showing a gloved hand holding a wrench and reading "America's answer!".

The Coronavirus War Economy Will Change the World

When societies shift their economies to a war footing, it doesn’t just help them survive a crisis—it alters them forever.
by Nicholas Mulder via Foreign Policy on March 26, 2020
People standing in line, social distancing six feet apart.
partner

Social Distancing Won’t Happen Until Governments Order It

Just like in wartime, compulsion is a must.
by Edward J. K. Gitre via Made By History on March 17, 2020

Sanctuaries Protecting Gun Rights and the Unborn Challenge the Legitimacy of Federal Law

Who gets to decide what the Constitution really means?
by John E. Finn via The Conversation on October 15, 2019

The Fourth Battle for the Constitution

The latest struggle to define America's founding charter will define the country for generations to come.
by Jeffrey Rosen via The Atlantic on September 25, 2019
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