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An eagle in its nest of the American flag, which holds eggs representing the states.

From Woke to Solidarity

On two new books that critique identity politics and seek a new vision of political culture.
by Michael S. Roth via Los Angeles Review of Books on December 24, 2024
Painting Romania Unchained.

Where Identity Politics Actually Comes From

Nationalism, not postmodernism, is the fount of today's politics of recognition.
by Jason Blakely via The Chronicle of Higher Education on October 3, 2023
Man in suit with tape over his mouth.

In Florida, Teaching African American History Is Against the Law

The latest battlefield in the GOP’s “anti-woke” crusade.
by John Fea via Current (religion and democracy) on January 20, 2023
Photo from above showing people walking and biking on the painted letters in Black Lives Matter Plaza.

When Did the Ruling Class Get Woke?

A conversation with Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò on his new book, which investigates the co-option of identity politics and the importance of coalitional organizing. 
by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, Ishan Desai-Geller via The Nation on May 9, 2022
Black and white photo of The National Negro Business League with founder Booker T. Washington.

Identity Politics and Elite Capture

The Combahee River Collective and E. Franklin Frazier’s Black Bourgeoisie agree that the wealthy and powerful will hijack activist energies for their own ends.
by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò via Boston Review on May 7, 2020
Man cheering at a political rally while wearing a Trump sticker on his cheesehead hat.

'Tribalism’ Doesn’t Explain Our Political Conflicts

We should look to history – not prehistory – to understand current political challenges.
by Adam Rothman via Washington Post on November 14, 2018
The Tower of Babel painting by Pieter Bruegel The Elder

Identity Crisis

It’s only by acknowledging the roots of identity politics in the emancipatory movements of the past that we can begin the work of formulating an alternative.
by Salar Mohandesi via Viewpoint Magazine on March 17, 2017
A man pushes a bicycle as he walks amid rubble in the devastated area around Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital, April 3, 2024. (AFP via Getty Images)

Gaza and the Undoing of Zionism

A historian reviews new books by Peter Beinart, Avi Shlaim and Pankaj Mishra on the project that animates Israel’s violence.
by Yakov M. Rabkin via New Lines on June 20, 2025
Illustration equating Israel's “Who is a Jew?” policy with the Nazi selection process.

Jew? Not a Jew?

The untold story of how American Jewry and the Jewish state almost resolved the question of who is a Jew.
by Tracy Frydberg via Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera on June 10, 2025
Jewish activists hold Passover Seder outside ICE headquarters in New York City to demand an end to Israel's war on Gaza.

The Past, Present, and Future of Left Jewish Identity

Jewish-led Palestine solidarity demonstrations are part of a long history of Jewish identity being bound up in leftist politics.
by Benjamin Balthaser, Shane Burley via Jacobin on June 8, 2025
The all seeing eye reveals that the American flag is melting.

America’s Broken Commonwealth

The nation’s founding myth was based on faith and solidarity – but it also contained the roots of today’s democratic crisis.
by Rowan Williams via New Statesman on May 22, 2025
A contact sheet of portraits of James Baldwin, 1972.

For Those Who Would Be Real

James Baldwin’s testimony in images.
by Harmony Holiday via Harper’s on April 29, 2025
Sam Francis

He’s a Key Thinker of the Radical Right, But Is He All That?

Where the rediscovery of Sam Francis goes wrong.
by Joshua Tait via The Bulwark on April 11, 2025

"It's the Economy, Stupid" is Never Just About the Economy

Can the Clinton campaign slogan chart a path forward for Democrats? Its history tells another story.
by Jacob Rosenberg via Mother Jones on December 12, 2024
"Coming Out Republican: A History of the Gay Right" book cover.

The History of Gay Conservatism

LGBTQ voters overwhelmingly went for Harris, but the idea that gay voters are always going to be solidly blue is a myth.
by Roger Lancaster via Damage on December 11, 2024
Kamala Harris waving to the audience in front of American flags.

What Does Caste Have to Do With Kamala Harris?

This election year, two women of South Asian descent—Kamala Harris and Usha Vance—take center stage. What can their identities tell us about their approach?
by Tanvi Misra via Harper's Bazaar on September 26, 2024
Collage of popular culture references from 2008 onward.

That Feeling You Recognize? Obamacore.

The 2008 election sparked an outburst of brightness and positivity across pop culture. Now hindsight — and cringe — is setting in.
by Nate Jones via Vulture on August 20, 2024
Boxes with Black American history inside

The Black Box of Race

In a circumscribed universe, Black Americans have ceaselessly reinvented themselves.
by Henry Louis Gates Jr. via The Atlantic on March 16, 2024
A scene from the film Orphans of the Storm depicting a group carrying a sign bearing the slogan “Liberté, Egalité et Fraternité,” 1921.

The History of Equality: It’s Complicated

The strange and contradicting development of the liberal version of egalitarianism.
by Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, Darrin M. McMahon via The Nation on November 16, 2023
Black Panther Party members demonstrating outside the New York County Criminal Court, April 11, 1969.

The Black Radical Tradition Can Guide Our Struggles Against Oppression

Uncovering a tradition of African American radicalism that was—and is—a crucial part of the American left’s history.
by Robin D. G. Kelley, Daniel Denvir via Jacobin on July 6, 2023
Protester holding a sign that states, "To serve and protect who?" at a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020.

Has Black Lives Matter Changed the World?

A new book makes the case for a more pragmatic anti-policing movement—one that seeks to build working-class solidarity across racial lines.
by Jay Caspian Kang via The New Yorker on April 21, 2023
The American flag on a black background; underneath the flag the outline of the Christian cross is visible

How Christian Is Christian Nationalism?

Many Americans who advocate it have little interest in religion and an aversion to American culture as it currently exists. What really defines the movement?
by Kelefa Sanneh via The New Yorker on March 27, 2023
Flag of the Confederacy

The United States of Confederate America

Support for Confederate symbols and monuments follows lines of race, religion, and education rather than geography.
by David A. Graham via The Atlantic on October 4, 2022
Illustrative grid rid of students with the faces represented by various colors, fabric patterns, and textures.

How Affirmative Action Was Derailed by Diversity

The Supreme Court has watered down the policy’s core justification: justice.
by Richard Thompson Ford via The Chronicle of Higher Education on September 2, 2022
Francis Fukuyama

Last Man Standing

Francis Fukuyama pines for that old-time liberalism.
by Michael Brenes via The Baffler on June 27, 2022
Deborah Lipstadt at her Senate nomination hearing.

Deborah Lipstadt vs. “The Oldest Hatred”

In her new role as antisemitism envoy, Deborah Lipstadt will attempt to fight a scourge of antisemitism that she seems to regard as incurable.
by Mari Cohen via Jewish Currents on April 28, 2022
Combahee River Collective holding sign that reads 3rd World Women: We Cannot Live Without Our Lives
partner

Annotations: The Combahee River Collective Statement

The Black feminist collective's 1977 statement has been a bedrock document for academics, organizers and theorists for 45 years.
by Liz Tracey via JSTOR Daily on March 24, 2022
"Impeach Earl Warren" billboard by the John Birch Society.

Rise of the Far-Right Ultras

A new book shows just how porous the dividing line has been between the far right and mainstream conservatism.
by Kim Phillips-Fein via The Nation on January 11, 2022
The women of the Combahee River Collective.

“If Black Women Were Free”: An Oral History of the Combahee River Collective

“Here we are, a group of Black lesbian feminist anti-imperialist anti-capitalists trying to do the right thing.”
by Marian Moser Jones via The Nation on October 29, 2021
Joe Biden

How Joe Biden Became Irish

The president has skillfully played up his Irish roots, but the story of his ancestry is more complicated.
by Ben Schreckinger via Politico Magazine on September 14, 2021
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