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The Day White Virginia Stopped Admiring Gen. Robert E. Lee and Started Worshiping Him

Stripping Virginia of its Lee tributes is far harder than it is in other places.
by Steve Hendrix via Retropolis on August 23, 2017
W. E. B. DuBois testifying to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

No Excuses for a Racist Murderer

A 1928 essay by W.E.B. DuBois on the legacy of Robert E. Lee.
via In These Times on August 22, 2017

Charlottesville: Why Jefferson Matters

Annette Gordon-Reed explores the ways in which the many paradoxes of Jefferson make him a potent figure for racists and anti-racists alike.
by Annette Gordon-Reed via New York Review of Books on August 19, 2017
Robert E. Lee statue

Confederate Statues Honor Timeless Virtues — Let Them Stay

Don’t let extremists on both sides destroy honor and valor, even as they seek to destroy everything else.
by Arthur Herman via National Review on August 19, 2017

Some Thoughts on Public Memory

The only logic to honoring Lee is to honor treason and treason in the worst possible cause.
by Josh Marshall via Talking Points Memo on August 14, 2017

The Ideological Slipperiness of the Kennedy Legacy

Politicians from both sides of the aisle have tried to stake a claim to the power of the Kennedy legend. What is it about Camelot?
by Aida Amoako via JSTOR Daily on August 9, 2017

The Making of an Antislavery President

Fred Kaplan's new book asks why it took Abraham Lincoln so long to embrace emancipation.
by Eric Herschthal via The New Republic on June 23, 2017
Jackson statue outside the White House.

Trump's Jacksonian Moment

A new biography of Andrew Jackson recounts a bloody history, and reveals disturbing parallels between the 1830s and the Trump era.
by Richard White via Boston Review on June 7, 2017

How the ‘Hamilton Effect’ Distorts the Founders

Too often, we look to history not to understand it, but to seek out confirmation for our preexisting beliefs. That’s a problem.
by Mike Lee via Politico Magazine on May 30, 2017

Looking Back to Lincoln

During the Great Depression, Americans found solace in history.
by Fishko Files via WNYC on May 11, 2017

Mr. President, You're Right About Andrew Jackson

If Jackson's presidency had been later, he may have prevented the Civil War.
by Daniel Ruddy via Newsmax on May 6, 2017

What Trump Gets Right—and Progressives Get Wrong—About Andrew Jackson

In the 19th century, Jackson broadened the electorate, but the self-righteousness of some Democrats impedes their efforts to do the same.
by Theodore R. Johnson III via The Atlantic on May 2, 2017

Let’s Not Pretend That ‘Hamilton’ Is History

America's founders have never enjoyed more sex appeal, but the hit Musical cheats audiences by making democracy look easy
by Nancy Isenberg via Zócalo Public Square on March 17, 2017
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Black History Month

What does Black History Month leave out?
by N. D. B. Connolly via BackStory on March 7, 2017

American History: Fake News That Never Goes Away — and Empowered the Trumpian Insurrection

Only if we face the painful lies we tell ourselves about the past can we hope to overcome what's happening now.
by Nancy Isenberg, Andrew Burstein via Salon on February 25, 2017

Were the Framers Democrats?

Review of The Framers' Coup: The Making of the United States Constitution, by Michael J. Klarman.
by Cass R. Sunstein via The New Rambler on October 31, 2016
Portrait of Alexander Hamilton

The Hamilton Cult

Has the celebrated musical eclipsed the man himself?
by Robert Sullivan via Harper’s on October 1, 2016
Lin-Manuel Miranda, center, and the cast of "Hamilton" at the Richard Rodgers Theater.

Father Worship

Hamilton is less a new vision of the past than a translation of the sacred stories of American civil religion into the vernacular.
by Peter Manseau via The Baffler on September 6, 2016

Jefferson: Hero or Villain? It’s Complicated.

An interview with Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter S. Onuf.
by Annette Gordon-Reed, Richard Kreitner, Peter S. Onuf via Boston Review on May 19, 2016

A Hamilton Skeptic on Why the Show Isn’t As Revolutionary As It Seems

"It's still white history. And no amount of casting people of color disguises the fact that they're erasing people of color from the actual narrative."
by Lyra Monteiro, Rebecca Onion via Slate on April 5, 2016

The Crumbling Monuments of the Age of Marble

The 20th century produced monuments to a false consensus—can the 21st century create a more representative commemorative sphere?
by Mason B. Williams via The Atlantic on December 6, 2015
Lewis and Clark expedition, with Sacagawea whitened out in the center.

How The West Was Wrong: The Mystery Of Sacagawea

Sacagawea is a symbol for everything from Manifest Destiny to women’s rights to American diversity. Except we don't know much about her.
by Natalie Shure via BuzzFeed News on October 11, 2015

Bellatrix and the American Revolution

240 years after the American Revolution, debates over how to interpret the conflict and its leaders continue.
by Alex Cacioppo via Public Books on March 9, 2015
Black-and-white illustration of conquistadores with a Native American kneeling before them.
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Making a Myth

A time before “everyone” knew the story of Christopher Columbus, and the role of Washington Irving’s massive biography in creating the heroic Columbus myth.
via BackStory on October 10, 2014
Columbus and crew landing boat at San Salvador
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1492: Columbus in American Memory

Columbus Day is here again -- along with the controversy over its namesake. How have earlier generations understood him?
via BackStory on October 10, 2014
1846 proposal for design of Washington Monument
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Mall Rats

The early controversy over whether or not to build the Washington Monument on the National Mall.
via BackStory on May 23, 2014

Tales of Brave Ulysses

Ulysses S. Grant was overlooked by historians and underestimated by contemporaries. H.W. Brands reevaluates Grant’s presidency.
by H. W. Brands via Lapham’s Quarterly on October 1, 2012
Drawings of George Washington

His Highness

George Washington scales new heights.
by Jill Lepore via The New Yorker on September 20, 2010
Alexander Hamilton.

Inventing Alexander Hamilton

The troubling embrace of the founder of American finance.
by William Hogeland via Boston Review on November 1, 2007
Painting of Woody Guthrie smoking a cigarette while playing a guitar.

Woody Guthrie: Folk Hero

Guthrie challenged the commercial aesthetic of the pre-rock era through a performance style that was almost combatively anti-musical.
by David Hajdu via The New Yorker on March 21, 2004
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