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Demonstrators holding signs at George Floyd protest in NYC, 2020.

Americans Used to Unite Over Tragic Events − and Now Are Divided By Them

Tragedy seldom unifies Americans today.
by Thomas D. Beamish via The Conversation on June 18, 2024
Join, or Die , a 1754 political cartoon by Benjamin Franklin.

A Shotgun Wedding

Barely-disguised hostilities sometimes belied the rebels’ declared identity as the United States of America.
by Lynn Uzzell via Law & Liberty on November 9, 2023
A lithograph of Daniel Webster from William H. Brown’s 1845 series “Portrait Gallery of Distinguished American Citizens”

We Fought Over American National Identity During the Antebellum Period. The Fight Should Be Ongoing.

A new work of history finds the best antidote to today’s authoritarian politics in Daniel Webster’s 19th-century civic nationalism.
by David Marques via The New Republic on November 15, 2022
Join or Die woodcut of a chopped up rattlesnake representing un-unified colonies.

The Serpents of Liberty

From the colonial period to the end of the US Civil War, the rattlesnake sssssssymbolized everything from evil to unity and power.
by Zachary Mcleod Hutchins, Matthew Wills via JSTOR Daily on August 30, 2021
Trump walking out of the Capitol building to be inaugurated.

Losing Our Civil Religion

Trump's unbridled rhetorical rampage has stripped the presidency of its moral ambition and authority. 
by John D. Carlson via Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera on September 26, 2017
Independence Day Celebration in Centre Square by John Lewis Krimmel (1787–1821).

The Brief Period, 200 Years Ago, When American Politics Was Full of “Good Feelings”

James Monroe’s 1817 goodwill tour kicked off a decade of party-less government – but he couldn’t stop the nation from dividing again.
by Erick Trickey via Smithsonian on July 17, 2017
Godey's Lady's book cover, 1867.
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All Hale Thanksgiving

In the 1820s, Sarah Hale, a New England widow and the editor of Godey’s Ladies Book made it her mission to get Thanksgiving recognized as a national holiday.
via BackStory on November 15, 2016

Bernie Sanders Is Right That Reparations Would Be Divisive

But the Vermont senator’s political revolution depends on white America, too.
by Jamelle Bouie via Slate on January 21, 2016
Fabric with stars on one side and George Washington on the other.

The ‘Dirty and Nasty People’ Who Became Americans

How 13 colonies came together.
by Lindsay M. Chervinsky via The Atlantic on July 4, 2025
The committee assigned to draft the Declaration of Independence examines the document.

The Declaration of Independence Mourns for Something People Lost in 1776 − and Now, Too

The nation’s founding document, the Declaration of Independence, depicts a wounded, fearful society, teetering on the brink of disaster. Sound familiar?
by Maurizio Valsania via The Conversation on June 17, 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
John Trumbull’s painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, 1819.

Who Invented the “Founding Fathers?”

The making of a myth.
by George Dillard via Looking Through The Past on May 21, 2025
A drawing of John Adams.

John Adams Is Bald and Toothless

A brief history of the Alien and Sedition Acts.
by Michael Liss via 3 Quarks Daily on May 19, 2025
Collage of school children, church windows, and a map of Oklahoma territory.

Oklahoma Is Asking the Supreme Court to Ignore History

The Founders had disagreements about the role of religion in America’s public schools, but there was always one line they would not cross.
by Adam Laats via The Atlantic on April 25, 2025
rattlesnake

How the Rattlesnake Almost Became an Emblem of a Nascent America

On the centuries-long historical evolution of a serpentine symbol.
by Stephen S. Hall via Literary Hub on April 24, 2025
Abraham Lincoln

Was the Civil War Inevitable?

Before Lincoln turned the idea of “the Union” into a cause worth dying for, he tried other means of ending slavery in America.
by Adam Gopnik via The New Yorker on April 21, 2025

Trump May Wish to Abolish the Past. We Historians Will Not.

Commentary from the heads of two prominent historical associations on Trump’s recent executive order on “radical indoctrination” in schools.
by David W. Blight, James Grossman, Beth English via The New Republic on February 6, 2025
"The Underground Railroad" (1893) by Charles T. Webber depicts a fugitive slave reaching the North.

The Abolitionist Titan You’ve Never Heard Of

John Rankin, minister and fierce abolitionist, is a man worth remembering in our moment.
by Isaac Willour via Law & Liberty on November 8, 2024
Cover of "A Great Disorder" by Richard Slotkin, depicting the outline of the United States made out of cracked stone, overlaid with the American flag.

American Mythology

Is the United States a prisoner of its own mythology?
by Tom Zoellner via Los Angeles Review of Books on October 4, 2024
Joe Biden waving.

Joe Biden and the Art of the Presidential Farewell

Plus: How George Washington almost ruined his own exit from the national stage.
by Lindsay M. Chervinsky via The Bulwark on August 19, 2024
The Hall of the House of Representatives.

Are We Living Through Another 1850s?

It’s difficult to see how these profound antipathies and fears will dissipate soon through any normal political processes.
by Robert W. Merry via The American Conservative on July 22, 2024
The side of Donald Trump's face, focused on his bandaged ear from his attempted assassination.

Historians See Echoes of 1968 in Trump Assassination Attempt

But they also find key differences.
by Olivia B. Waxman via TIME on July 17, 2024
Cover of "A Great Disorder."

In Need of a New Myth

Myths to explain American history and chart a path to the future once helped to bind the country together. Today, they are absorbed into the culture wars.
by Eric Foner via London Review of Books on June 26, 2024
James Madison by Gilbert Stewart, 1821.

How the Constitution Unifies the Country

Yuval Levin urges us to take America’s greatest constitutional thinker, James Madison, as our lodestar.
by Marc Landy via Law & Liberty on June 11, 2024
A painting of Prince Albert Edward's visit to George Washington's tomb.
partner

On the Road to Ruin with Their Characteristic Speed

Waiting for the start of the American Civil War in Canada and the Caribbean.
by Alan Taylor via HNN on May 28, 2024
Election Day in Philadelphia, John Lewis Krimmel.

A More Imperfect Union: How Differing National Visions Divided the North and the South

On the fragile facade of republicanism in 19th century America.
by Alan Taylor via Literary Hub on May 21, 2024
People celebrating the construction of the transcontinental railroad.

Lincoln’s Imagined West

In Lincoln’s view the West represented a space for opportunity, especially for the citizen-soldiers returning to their prewar pursuits.
by Cecily Nelson Zander via The Civil War Monitor on April 1, 2024
Democrat and Republican stickers with letters (R or D) indicating the affiliation.

The Story Wars

The conflict between Red and Blue America is a clash of national mythologies.
by Richard S. Slotkin via The Yale Review on March 11, 2024
Yale Civil War memorial

A Yankee Apology for Reconstruction

The creators of Yale’s Civil War Memorial were more concerned with honoring “both sides” than with the true meaning of the war.
by David W. Blight via The Atlantic on February 16, 2024
A drawing of James Longstreet, zoomed in on his eyes.

The Confederate General Whom All the Other Confederates Hated

James Longstreet became a champion of Reconstruction. Why?
by Eric Foner via The Atlantic on November 13, 2023
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