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Leatherface swinging a chainsaw branded with the American flag.

It Might Be the Scariest Movie Ever Made. There’s Never Been a Better Time to Watch It.

The vibes right now are very "Texas Chain Saw Massacre."
by Emily C. Hughes via Slate on October 29, 2024
"We the People" collage.

Is It Time to Torch the Constitution?

Some scholars say that it’s to blame for our political dysfunction—and that we need to start over.
by Louis Menand via The New Yorker on September 23, 2024
Donald Trump speaks at a rally in July in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

What’s the Matter With the Democrats?

Two new books reveal the shortcomings at the heart of the liberal critique of Trump voters.
by Sean T. Byrnes via Dissent on September 23, 2024
Person wearing Trump 2020 hat in front of protesters with signs being in opposition of funding the war in Ukraine.
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Will Foreign Policy Decide the Election?

While it is rare for foreign policy differences between the political parties to affect electoral outcomes, it has happened before.
by Lindsay M. Chervinsky via Made By History on September 19, 2024
Exhibit

Polarized Lenses

The battle lines taking shape across America's political, media, and cultural spaces seem to be thickening by the day. How can history help us navigate this growing polarization?
Photo collage showing an anti-abortion rally, a same-sex marriage, and the Supreme Court, among other things.

How U.S. Public Opinion Has Changed in 20 Years of Our Surveys

We took a closer look at how Americans’ views and experiences have evolved on a variety of topics over the last 20 years.
by Jenn Hatfield via Pew Research Center on September 13, 2024
Illustration by Joanne Imperio / The Atlantic. Sources: Bettmann / Getty; Heritage Art / Getty; NY Daily News Archive / Getty.

What a 100-Year-Old Trial Reveals About America

A new book on the famed 1920s court case traces a long-simmering culture war—and the fear that often drives both sides.
by John Kaag via The Atlantic on August 29, 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
Barry Goldwater giving a speech at the Republican National Convention.
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The Republican National Convention That Shocked the Country

The pulsating anger in San Francisco 60 years ago became the party's animating spirit.
by Charles J. Holden via Made By History on July 17, 2024
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
A collage of the Eugene V. Debbs museum and advertisements for his presidential campaign from prison inside the museums collection.

‘Unless Jesus Christ Was Running’: In MAGA Country, Post-Verdict Trump is Still the Answer

Eugene Debs ran for president from prison. His former bellwether county — and museum — both hold lessons for Trump’s campaign.
by Adam Wren via Politico on June 3, 2024
Alexander Hamilton
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The Federalist No. 1: Annotated

Alexander Hamilton’s anonymous essay challenged the voting citizens of New York to hold fast to the truth when deciding to ratify (or not) the US Constitution.
by Alexander Hamilton, Liz Tracey via JSTOR Daily on May 30, 2024
Photo collage of faces and charts.

How ‘Diversity’ Became the Master Concept of Our Age

Across the ideological spectrum, it’s become a bedrock value. What does it mean?
by Nicolas Langlitz via The Chronicle of Higher Education on May 7, 2024
Costumed re-enactors at the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum in Boston.

The Boston Tea Party Turns 250

How does the most famous act of politically motivated property destruction in American history speak to our own polarized moment?
by Jennifer Schuessler via New York Times on December 15, 2023
flickr.com/photos/dalelanham
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Playing to the Cameras

The prominence of politicos-turned-pundits is a product of cable news' turn to opinion commentary as a cheap and easy way to meet the needs of 24/7 coverage.
by Kathryn Cramer Brownell via HNN on December 12, 2023
Political analyst Kevin P. Phillips in September 1970.

The GOP’s ‘Southern Strategy’ Mastermind Just Died. Here’s His Legacy.

Kevin Phillips help set the Republican Party on the path that led it to Trump.
by Kevin M. Kruse, Bill Kristol, Nicole Hemmer, Corey Robin, Michael Barone, Greg Sargent via Washington Post on October 12, 2023
Closed fist with faces of Judith Shklar, Hannah Arendt, Isaiah Berlin, and Lionel Trilling

Cold War Liberalism Is Still With Us. Is That a Good Thing?

A scholarly roundtable on Samuel Moyn's new book.
by Jan-Werner Müller, Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, Nicolas Guilhot, Penny Marie von Eschen, Vaughn Rasberry via The Chronicle of Higher Education on October 2, 2023
A collection of ninteenth-century manuscripts on top of a library table.

Fighting Words: The Pamphlets of a Democratic Revolution

To judge from the Concord collection, the public forum of antebellum America was no model of democratic deliberation.
by Robert A. Gross via Commonplace on September 19, 2023
Injured reporter interviewing bloodied antiwar demonstrator

Seeing Was Not Believing

A new book identifies the 1968 Democratic convention as the moment when broad public regard for the news media gave way to widespread distrust, and American divisiveness took off.
by Eric Foner via New York Review of Books on August 30, 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
An American flag stylized as a ball bearing maze.

The United States’ Unamendable Constitution

How our inability to change America’s most important document is deforming our politics and government.
by Jill Lepore via The New Yorker on October 26, 2022
Black and white photo of Charles Sumner

“A Solemn Battle Between Good and Evil.” Charles Sumner’s Radical, Compelling Message of Abolition

The senator from Massachusetts and the birth of the Republican Party.
by Timothy Shenk via Literary Hub on October 24, 2022
Black and white photo of the US National Guard troops blocking off Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee, as civil rights marchers pass by on March 29, 1968

American Federalism Isn’t a Boon for Democracy — It’s a Disease

The promise of US federalism is that states will be “laboratories of democracy." The reality is that states are more often laboratories of authoritarianism.
by Colin Gordon via Jacobin on October 6, 2022
Abortion opponents hold signs reading "I Vote Pro-life First" outside Supreme Court

Abortion and Partisan Entrenchment

The modern Republican Party has tied itself to Roe v. Wade. With the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs, the party is vulnerable to new issues.
by Jack Balkin via Social Science Research Network on September 14, 2022
Illustration of a Christian church cracking into two pieces.

A Religious Movement Divided Against Itself (Probably) Cannot Stand

Liberal Protestants built a global elite in the 20th century. Its fracturing holds a caution for evangelicals today.
by Daniel G. Hummel via Christianity Today on September 6, 2022
President Clinton pursing his lips, while Newt Gingrich looks at him from behind.
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Midterm Elections: How 1994 Midterms Set Off an Era of Divisive Politics

Economic and social issues with roots in the 1994 midterms are still being debated today.
via Retro Report on August 25, 2022
Illustration of Annette Gordon-Reed.

Majority Rule on the Brink

The legacies of our racial past, and the prospects ahead for an embattled republic.
by Annette Gordon-Reed, Chris Lehmann via The Forum on July 27, 2022

Break the History Addiction

July 4 and the perils of celebrating America’s past.
by David Armitage via New York Daily News on July 3, 2022

America’s Crisis-Industrial Complex

Are alarmist narratives about a “new civil war” obscuring the real battle in US politics: the fight for democracy?
by Nikhil Pal Singh via New Statesman on June 30, 2022
Members of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union break open barrels of liquor seized during Prohibition, 1929.

Roe Is the New Prohibition

The pro-life movement needs to know that such culture wars result not in outright victory for one side but in reaction and compromise.
by David Frum via The Atlantic on June 27, 2022
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