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History As End

1619, 1776, and the politics of the past.
by Matthew Karp via Harper’s on June 8, 2021
Headshot of Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass and the American Project

It would be hard to blame him if he had lost faith in the republic.
by Richard Hughes Gibson via The Hedgehog Review on February 22, 2021
Postcard of Wilshire Boulevard

Radical Movements in 1960s L.A.

A review of "Set The Night on Fire", an inspiring book that points to a new generation of activists who remain unbowed by conservative historiographies.
by Ryan Reft via The Metropole on January 11, 2021

The Argument of “Afropessimism”

Frank B. Wilderson III sketches a map of the world in which Black people are everywhere integral but always excluded.
by Vinson Cunningham via The New Yorker on July 13, 2020
Illustrated man with a top hat, sitting next to headstones.

The Left Side of History

Historians have been too much the ideological allies of Progressivism to permit themselves to see its master flaw.
by Allen C. Guelzo via Claremont Review of Books on May 4, 2020

Why Humanity Will Probably Botch the Next Pandemic, Too

A conversation with Mike Davis about what must be done to combat the COVID-19 pandemic – and all the other monsters still to come.
by Mike Davis, Eric Levitz via Intelligencer on April 30, 2020

Bad Romance

The afterlife of Vivian Gornick's "The Romance of American Communism" shows that we bear the weight of dead generations—and sometimes living ones, too.
by Alyssa Battistoni via Dissent on April 13, 2020

Remnants of the New Deal Order

We can only understand the left’s present dilemmas by seeing them in light of the conflicted legacy of the New Deal.
by Kim Phillips-Fein via Dissent on April 13, 2020

The Fight Over the 1619 Project Is Not About the Facts

A dispute between some scholars and the authors of NYT Magazine’s issue on slavery represents a fundamental disagreement over the trajectory of U.S. society.
by Adam Serwer via The Atlantic on December 23, 2019
Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck in Meet John Doe.

"Meet John Doe" Shows the Darkness of American Democracy

Frank Capra’s 1941 drama carries forward the populist themes of his other movies, only with a much darker premise.
by Kristin Hunt, Glenn Alan Phelps via JSTOR Daily on October 24, 2019

What’s Left of Generation X

To be Gen X was to be disaffected from the consumer norms of the 1980s, but to be pessimistic about any chance for social transformation.
by Kim Phillips-Fein via Dissent on October 8, 2019
Clarence Thomas.

The Conservative Black Nationalism of Clarence Thomas

A new book discusses the black nationalism at the heart of Thomas’s conservative jurisprudence.
by Corey Robin, Joshua Cohen via Boston Review on September 23, 2019

Pessimism and Primary Sources in the Survey

The pessimism of some historians does an injustice to marginalized people of the past and can produce cynicism in students.
by Jonathan W. Wilson via Teaching United States History on May 20, 2019
United Mine Workers on a picket line.

The Past and Future of the American Strike

A new book tells the history of America through its workplace struggles.
by Richard Yeselson via The Nation on March 21, 2019
partner

Stop Worrying About a Second Civil War

Predictions of society coming undone reflect deep anxieties over the divisions roiling the country, but these professed fears about our future actually provide hope.
by Jason Phillips via Made By History on October 12, 2018

Is Democracy Really Dying?

Why so many commentators share an overly grim view of America’s fate.
by Timothy Shenk via The New Republic on August 20, 2018
Ta-Nehisi Coates.

The Afro-Pessimist Temptation

An examination of the tragic echoes of Reconstruction-era politics following Obama's presidency.
by Darryl Pinckney via New York Review of Books on May 23, 2018

Still a Long Time Coming

Selma and the unfulfilled promise of civil rights.
by Elias Rodriques via The Nation on March 21, 2018
Ted Kaczynski being led by two law enforcement officers.

Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber

Purposely brutalizing psychological experiments may have confirmed Theodore Kaczynski’s still-forming belief in the evil of science while he was in college.
by Alston Chase via The Atlantic on June 1, 2000
Two bikers ride through the desert in Easy Rider, a 1969 film.

See America First

Two movies, 'Easy Rider' and 'Alice's Restaurant,' reveal the ideals of counterculture and act as vehicles for social commentary.
by Ellen Willis via New York Review of Books on January 2, 1970
A hand made into a fist is camouflaged against the American flag.

The Dark Parallels Between 1920s America and Today’s Political Climate

The early 1920s in the US offers historical lessons on how current pessimism about the state of the country can manifest in dangerous, discriminatory ways.
by Alex Green via The Conversation on March 10, 2025

The World of Tomorrow

When the future arrived, it felt…ordinary. What happened to the glamour of tomorrow?
by Virginia Postrel via Works In Progress on December 5, 2024
Elon Musk reacts on stage during a rally for Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden.

America’s Decline & Fall

The founders anticipated someone like Trump partly because they’d been reading Edward Gibbon’s 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.'
by Jim Sleeper via Commonweal on November 24, 2024
Haitian gang members carrying assault rifles, standing in the center of a stylized rifle sight.

Haiti’s Agents Of Fear

Haitians are caught between the grip of violent gangs and the messy legacies of foreign intervention.
by Matthew J. Smith via Noema on October 29, 2024

How ‘Left Behind’ Got Left Behind

A changing political mood among evangelicals has many believers imagining the end of the world differently than they used to.
by Matthew D. Taylor via The Bulwark on September 26, 2024
A crystal ball reflecting a landscape.

50 Years Later: Remembering How the Future Looked in 1974

A half-century ago, "Saturday Review" asked some of the era's visionaries for their predictions of what 2024 would look like. Here are their hits and misses.
by David Cassel via The New Stack on August 24, 2024
Eugene V. Debs giving a speech on an American flag themed stage.

Did ‘Churchianity’ Sink American Socialism?

A new book blames institutional Protestantism for undermining a vibrant strain of Christian radicalism that swirled through the Gilded Age.
by Heath W. Carter via Commonweal on July 26, 2024
A collection of supplies inside of a fallout shelter.

Nine Hot Weeks, with Misgivings

Cataloguing basement fallout shelters in the summer of 1967.
by Monte Davis via 3 Quarks Daily on July 16, 2024
A painting of a lively sermon in a Black church.

Respectability Be Damned: How the Harlem Renaissance Paved the Way for Art by Black Nonbelievers

How James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston, and others embraced a new Black humanism.
by Anthony B. Pinn via Literary Hub on May 24, 2024
A drawing of Magneto wearing a kippah over his helmet.

The Judgment Of Magneto

From villain to antihero, nationalist to freedom fighter, the comic book character has always been a reflection of the Jewish cultural identity.
by Asher Elbein via Defector on April 24, 2024
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