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President Trump at desk in Oval Office signing executive orders.

President Trump Promises to Make Government Efficient

He’ll run into the same roadblocks as Presidents Taft, Roosevelt, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Carter, Reagan, Clinton and Bush, among others.
by Jennifer Selin via The Conversation on January 24, 2025
Mexican Americans in a detention camp.

A Nation of Imprisoned Immigrants

Jails have been foundational to immigration enforcement for over a century—and have always operated with a staggering absence of oversight and public awareness.
by Brianna Nofil via Inquest on January 21, 2025
Collage of the American flag and the preamble to the Constitution.

The Historical Challenge to Originalism

Jonathan Gienapp's attack on originalism deserves a serious response.
by John O. McGinnis, Aaron N. Coleman, Mike Rappaport via Law & Liberty on January 16, 2025
State flags in front of a federal building.

Does America Still Do Federalism?

Michael Boskin’s volume gives a grim account of the state of federalism today.
by Tony Woodlief via Law & Liberty on January 13, 2025
Harris carved in stone next to Mount Rushmore.

Kamala Harris Must Grapple with America’s Founding Fathers

To achieve a new political settlement, she has to resolve a tension dating from the Revolution.
by Justin H. Vassallo via New Statesman on October 12, 2024
Image of a man distributing newspapers at a post office.
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The Post Office and Privacy

We can thank the postal service for establishing the foundations of the American tradition of communications confidentiality.
by Matthew Wills, Anuj Desai via JSTOR Daily on May 19, 2024
Ordinance from the 1866 Texas Constitution, renouncing Texas's claim to secession and declaring future attempts null and void.

Secession on the Ballot This Week ... Almost

A measure almost made the Republican Party’s 2024 Texas primary ballot to measure whether party members would support secession from the United States.
by Neil P. Chatelain via Emerging Civil War on March 4, 2024
Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas and typed footnote

Clarence Thomas Went After My Work. His Criticisms Reveal a Disturbing Fact About Originalism.

If judges are going to use history as their guide, they should probably try to get the history right.
by Gregory Ablavsky via Slate on June 20, 2023
Father Charles Coughlin delivers a radio speech (Fotosearch/Getty Images).

Ultra Violence

Rachel Maddow’s podcast tells of American Nazis in the 1940s. But the era’s real and lasting authoritarian danger came from the growth of a national security state.
by Nelson Lichtenstein via Dissent on May 23, 2023
Framed photograph of an African-American soldier in Union uniform with wife and two daughters, circa 1863–1865.

Means-Testing Is the Foe of Freedom

After Emancipation, Black people fought for public benefits like pensions that would make their newly won citizenship meaningful.
by Matthew E. Stanley via Jacobin on April 17, 2023
Sketch of a gathering of African Americans gathering in a meetinghouse.

“Nativity Gives Citizenship”: Teaching Antislavery Constitutionalism Through Black Conventions

The demand of antislavery activists for accused fugitives to be guaranteed a jury trial was an implicit recognition of Black citizenship.
by Erik J. Chaput via Commonplace on March 7, 2023
Texas investigators and medical examiners stand on top of the ruins of the Mount Carmel compound.

How the Right Got Waco Wrong

Militia groups have long used Waco as a rallying cry. But it was never the example of whiteness under siege that they invoke.
by Paul M. Renfro via The New Republic on January 31, 2023
Illustration depicting workmen and firemen dragging a fireman and engineer from a Baltimore freight train during the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad strike.

The Railway Labor Act Allowed Congress to Break the Rail Strike. We Should Get Rid of It.

Congress was able to break the rail strike last week because of a century-old law designed to weaken the disruptive power of unions.
by Nelson Lichtenstein, Andrew Yamakawa Elrod via Jacobin on December 7, 2022
Engraving of an attempt to start a freight train, under a guard of U.S. marshals during the great railway strike of 1886.

Historians' Letter to President Biden About Looming Railroad Strike

More than 500 historians signed onto this letter of support for the demands of railway workers.
on November 30, 2022
Black-and-white photograph of President Dwight Eisenhower smiling at camera from his desk

The Effective Conservative Governance of Ike Eisenhower

The conservative successes of the Eisenhower administration have been too quickly forgotten.
by Geoffrey Kabaservice via The American Conservative on October 15, 2022
Graphic design of a red, fractured United States on a yellow background

There Is Absolutely Nothing to Support the ‘Independent State Legislature’ Theory

Such a doctrine would be antithetical to the Framers’ intent, and to the text, fundamental design, and architecture of the Constitution.
by J. Michael Luttig via The Atlantic on October 3, 2022
Timothy McVeigh in a prison jumpsuit surrounded by law enforcement agents.
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Extremism in America: The Oklahoma City Bombing

Neo-Nazi propaganda, military deployment and the F.B.I. raid in Waco, Texas, radicalized Timothy McVeigh and led to the Oklahoma City attack.
via Retro Report on April 26, 2022
Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, and Barack Obama walking together

How to Tell the History of the Democrats

What connection does the party of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson have to the party of Barack Obama and Kamala Harris?
by Michael Kazin, Timothy Shenk via Dissent on April 25, 2022
Illustration of T. Thomas Fortune

Abolition Democracy’s Forgotten Founder

While W. E. B. Du Bois praised an expanding penitentiary system, T. Thomas Fortune called for investment in education and a multiracial, working-class movement.
by Robin D. G. Kelley via Boston Review on April 19, 2022
Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara in a Cabinet meeting.

Juxtaposing Liberal Nationalism and International Politics: Lyndon Johnson on Vietnam War

How and why did Johnson consider American military involvement in Vietnam a worthwhile cause that would benefit American interests and American lives?
by Zachary Clary via Journal of the History of Ideas Blog on April 4, 2022
Black and white people sitting at a lunch counter.

When Rights Went Right

Is the American conception of constitutional rights too absolute?
by David Cole via New York Review of Books on March 31, 2022
Two types of intrauterine devices, copper and hormonal, such as Mirena or Skyla
partner

Abortion Opponents Are Gunning For Contraception, Too

Efforts to roll back abortion and contraception access aim to control women’s sexuality.
by Anya Jabour via Made By History on March 25, 2022
Portrait of George Washington on a horse.

Declaring War

Congress hasn't declared it often. The U.S. has fought a lot of war anyway. How?
by William Hogeland via Hogeland's Bad History on March 2, 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
James Madison seated at desk

What Would James Madison Have Thought of the Filibuster?

A leading historian of Madison's political thought explains that the framer "did not believe in minority rule."
by Jack Rakove, Greg Sargent via Washington Post on January 11, 2022
Sign reading "One World" with a picture of Earth.

Climate Change Governance: Past, Present, and (Hopefully) Future

The 2015 Paris Agreement represented a shift in the climate regime towards "new governance," expanding the roles of nation-states and non-state actors alike.
by Jessica Green via Cambridge University Press on December 2, 2021
George Washington in front a map of the United States.

The Storm Over the American Revolution

Why has a relatively conventional history of the War of Independence drawn such an outraged response?
by Eric Herschthal via The New Republic on November 18, 2021
The United States Supreme Court building.
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‘Originalism’ Only Gives the Conservative Justices One Option On a Key Gun Case

Regulations limiting armed travel in public, particularly in populous areas, stretch back over seven centuries.
by Saul Cornell via Made By History on November 3, 2021
Demonstrators outside the New York City offices of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) on Aug. 31.
partner

The Supreme Court Ended The Eviction Ban But Not The Fight Against Evictions

Historically, the failures and limitations of federal policy have emboldened activists.
by Maia Silber via Made By History on September 9, 2021
Depiction of an agricultural fair with crowds of people gathered around exhibit halls.

Slavery, Technology and the Social Origins of the US Agricultural State

Ariel Ron discusses the rise of the agricultural state in his book, Grassroots Leviathan: Agricultural Reform and the Rural North in the Slaveholding Republic.
by Ariel Ron via Broadstreet on September 3, 2021
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