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Remains of an elephant preserved at the US National Museum.

How Moderate Republicans Went Extinct

On Nelson Rockefeller and the disappearance of moderate Republicans from American politics.
by Henry M. J. Tonks via Public Seminar on September 18, 2024
Colonists in front of the Old State House in Boston.

‘King Hancock’ Review: The Biggest Name in Boston

More than an artful calligrapher, John Hancock forswore the austerity of his fellow Bostonians, and their extremism.
by William Anthony Hay via The Wall Street Journal on October 6, 2023
Watercolor of Abraham Lincoln with soldiers in swirls of red across his face.

Abraham Lincoln’s Radical Moderation

What the president understood that the zealous Republican reformers in Congress didn’t.
by Andrew Ferguson via The Atlantic on February 15, 2020
Martin Luther King Jr. speaking into news microphones.

MLK Warned Us of the Well-Intentioned Liberal

Dr. King did not compromise on racial justice. Neither should we.
by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, William J. Barber II via The Nation on January 18, 2019
A Democratic donkey with its head cut off is surrounded by hands pointing at charts and graphs.

How Strategist Brain Took Over the Democratic Party

During the Reagan revolution, Democrats settled on a new way to win—and it’s destroying them now.
by Ben Mathis-Lilley via Slate on July 10, 2025
Political cartoon depicting 1856 presidential candidates

The First Punch

There are uncanny parallels between the elections of 2024 and 1856, with one big exception: in 1856, it was the political left that was on the offensive.
by Matthew Karp via Harper’s on December 5, 2024
A drawing of a Wide Awake march.

These Torchlit Young Marchers Helped to Save American Democracy

They called themselves the Wide Awakes. They are a lesson in building a political movement.
by Jon Grinspan via Washington Post on May 14, 2024
Women at National Organization for Women demonstration

Betty Friedan and the Movement That Outgrew Her

Friedan was indispensable to second-wave feminism. And yet she was difficult to like.
by Moira Donegan via The New Yorker on September 11, 2023
1988 Republican presidential candidates on the debate stage.
partner

Republicans Didn’t Always Run Far to the Right in Presidential Primaries

The 1988 presidential primary showed it wasn't always like this — and helped guide the GOP to where it is now.
by Robert L. Fleegler via Made By History on June 8, 2023
Jonathan Big next to cover of "King: A Life."

Restoring the Real, Radical Martin Luther King Jr. in “King: A Life”

A new biography of King emerges at a "critical juncture" for his legacy.
by Jonathan Eig, Steve Nathans-Kelly via Chicago Review of Books on May 23, 2023
MLK at microphone

Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King

The King holiday is more than a time for reflection. It’s really a time for provocation.
by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor via The Daily Princetonian on January 17, 2022
A collage with photos of Barack Obama.

The Limits of Barack Obama’s Idealism

“A Promised Land” tells of a country that needed a savior.
by Thomas Meaney via The New Republic on February 15, 2021
Henry Wallace.

The Past and Future of the Left in the Democratic Party

Centrist Democrats who blamed the left for election losses would do well to remember the people who have fought for and shaped the party’s history.
by Michael Brenes, Michael Koncewicz via The Nation on December 9, 2020
The Lincoln Memorial.
partner

Channeling Lincoln’s Ideological Balancing Act Will Lead Biden to Success

In his time, the 16th president drew comparisons to a famous tightrope walker.
by David S. Reynolds via Made By History on November 20, 2020
Joe Biden.
partner

What’s Driving So Many Republicans to Support Joe Biden?

The collapse of the Republican Party.
by Geoffrey Kabaservice via Made By History on October 30, 2020
Artistic photo with american flags

Richard Hofstadter’s Discontents

Why did the historian come to fear the very movements he once would have celebrated?
by Jeet Heer via The Nation on October 6, 2020
William Faulkner writes at a typewriter in front of a messy bookshelf, not looking at the camera.

What to Do About William Faulkner

A white man of the Jim Crow South, he couldn’t escape the burden of race, yet derived creative force from it.
by Drew Gilpin Faust via The Atlantic on August 8, 2020

A Brief History of Dangerous Others

Wielding the outside agitator trope has always, at bottom, been a way of putting dissidents in their place.
by Richard Kreitner, Rick Perlstein via New York Review of Books on July 27, 2020

No Justice, No Peace

To understand the slogan's meaning, consider the words of Martin Luther King, who saw the riots of the 1960s as not revolutionary enough.
by Asad Haider via Viewpoint Magazine on June 4, 2020

Eugenics and the White Moderate

Reflections on the COVID crisis from Reconstruction.
by William Horne via U.S. Intellectual History Blog on May 25, 2020

When Centrists Sounded Like Bernie

If the Democratic Party won’t listen to the left, it should at least listen to itself from 30 years ago.
by Ed Burmila via The Nation on April 7, 2020
partner

How Biden vs. Sanders Echoes a 1964 Republican Party Split

Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden are the icons of an ideological split among today’s Democrats, echoing a similar split in the Republican party of 1964.
by Matt Spolar, Sianne Garlick, Karen M. Sughrue via Retro Report on March 4, 2020
Presidential candidates after a Democratic primary debate.
partner

South Carolina May Well Determine Whether Democrats Can Win the Presidency

Winning the South Carolina primary requires exciting a crucial constituency.
by Robert Greene II via Made By History on February 28, 2020

Making Impeachment Matter

Democrats need to face up to their constitutional duty without fear.
by Alex Pareene via The New Republic on November 21, 2019
Rush Limbaugh sits next to Newt Gingrich during NBC's "Meet the Press" taping on Sunday Nov. 12, 1995.

They Just Wanted to Entertain

AM stations mainly wanted to keep listeners engaged—but ended up remaking the Republican Party.
by Brian Rosenwald via The Atlantic on August 21, 2019
Barry Goldwater with his finger to his lips sushing the audience.
partner

How Never-Trump Republicans Went Extinct

Shared enemies and ideology matter more than Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric.
by Lawrence B. Glickman via Made By History on August 6, 2019
Martin Luther King Jr. criticizes the Vietnam war at a speech at University of Minnesota in 1967.
partner

Centrism and Moderation? No Thanks.

In times of moral crisis, everyone picks a side — even those proclaiming neutrality.
by April Holm via Made By History on February 27, 2019
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at podium giving "I Have A Dream" speech.

Martin Luther King Jr. Had a Much More Radical Message than a Dream of Racial Brotherhood

King Jr., remembered today for his non-violent resistance, was a radical reformer who called for fundamental redistribution of economic power and resources.
by Paul Harvey via The Conversation on March 30, 2018
Zombie hand reaching up from the ground in a graveyard.

The Dead Hand of Clintonism

More than 20 years after Bill Clinton left office, Democrats remain in the grips of his New Democrat politics. That’s a serious problem.
by Lily Geismer via The Nation on February 13, 2025
Taylor Swift's Instagram post endorsing Kamala Harris. Swift is holding a cat and facing the camera, dressed in black.

Taylor Swift and the History of the Celebrity Endorsement

Do pop culture interventions in presidential elections make a difference?
by Addie Mahmassani via New Lines on October 23, 2024
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