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Black and white photo of the “Star-Spangled Banner” flown during the War of 1812, 1914.

A Fiery Gospel

A conversation about changing the American story.
A tank on a city street.

U.S. Deliberation During Hungary’s 1956 Uprising Offers Lessons on Restraint

As the war in Ukraine worsens, there’s little debate about Western policy choices. This is a mistake.
A photograph of John Brown and scraps of his writing.

The Irrevocable Step

John Brown and the historical novel.
Artistic collage of the preamble to the U.S. Constitution.

Was Emancipation Constitutional?

Did the Confederacy have a constitutional right to secede? And did Lincoln violate the Constitution in forcing them back into the Union and freeing the slaves?
INTERIM ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES A map of slavery laws in the United States, from 1775 to 1865.

A Reckoning With How Slavery Ended

A new book examines the ways white slaveholders were compensated, while formerly enslaved people were not.
Bill Clinton speaking to a crowd.

How the Democrats Ditched Economic Populism for Neoliberalism

On the pro-business transformation of the Democratic Party.
Illustration of Abraham Lincoln getting ready to give a speech.

Re-imagining the Great Emancipator

How shall a generation know its story, if it will know no other?
U.S. Supreme Court

Reading the 14th Amendment

A review of three books about Abraham Lincoln, the 14th Amendment, and Reconstruction.
Bob Dole sitting next to Mike Pence at an official event

Bob Dole’s Disability Rights Legacy Marked the End of a Bipartisan Era

The former Republican leader played a key role in the Americans With Disabilities Act but stuck with the GOP as the party turned its back on the law.
Surgeon General Vivek Murphy, Texas Children's Hospital chief pathologist Jim Versalovic and first lady Jill Biden visit with kids before they receive their coronavirus vaccine shots on Nov. 14 in Houston.
partner

History Shows That Passing School Coronavirus Vaccine Mandates Could Require Exemptions

Enacting vaccination mandates demands political give and take.
Rioters during the January 6th capitol siege

White Supremacists Declare War on Democracy and Walk Away Unscathed

The United States has a terrible habit of letting white supremacy get away with repeated attempts to murder American democracy.
Picture of Barack Obama and W.E.B Du Bois.

A Prophet and a President

Why black biography matters.
The National Archive rotunda, Washington, D.C.

Why Americans Worship the Constitution

The veneration of the Constitution is directly connected to America’s emergence as global hegemon.
The Electoral Commission of 1877 holding a secret session by candle-light.
partner

The Electoral Count Act Is Broken. Fixing It Requires Knowing How It Became Law.

Trump tried to exploit flaws that were embedded in the law from the start.

The Hidden Stakes of the Infrastructure Wars

The fight over the American Jobs Plan reflects a long history of competing visions of public works—and, most of all, who should benefit from rebuilding.
Newt Gingrich and applauding Republicans

My Front Row Seat to the Radicalization of the Republican Party

As a political reporter, I've seen four Republican revolutions — Reagan’s, Gingrich’s, the Tea Party’s and Trump’s — each of which took the party farther right.
Map of the Appalachian mountain range

The Making of Appalachian Mississippi

“Mississippi’s white Appalachians may have owned the earth, but they could never own the past.”
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.).
partner

House Republicans’ Leadership Fight Signals a New Direction

Leadership battles tell us a lot about where a party is headed.
A map of the eastern US, with a line from Washington DC to St. Louis.

The Ill-Fated Idea to Move the Nation's Capital to St. Louis

In the years after the Civil War, some wanted a new seat of government that would be closer to the geographic center of a growing nation.
Silhouette with pieces of constitutions and other prints inside

When Constitutions Took Over the World

Was this new age spurred by the ideals of the Enlightenment or by the imperatives of global warfare?
Senator Chuck Schumer walking to the Senate floor through a room filled with cots in preparation for an all-night debate in an attempt to break a Republican filibuster, July 2007

Can the Senate Restore Majority Rule?

The filibuster, invented to uphold slavery, must be eliminated if Democrats hope to deliver progressive legislation.
Thaddeus Stevens

The Radicalism of Thaddeus Stevens

Thaddeus Stevens understood far better than most that fully uprooting slavery meant overthrowing the South’s economic system and challenging property rights.
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.
Demonstrators at the 1970 Hardhat Riot in New York City.

Backlash Forever

It’s time to abandon the assumption that workers have a “natural” home on the center-left.
Wallpaper printed in support of the Constitutional Union Party’s presidential candidate, John Bell, in 1860.

A Constitution of Freedom

During the 1860 presidential election, political parties dueled over the intent of the framers.
Black and White photo of demonstrators

When Medicare Helped Kill Jim Crow

By making health care broadly available, the government helps ensure our freedom.
Drawing of Lincoln with his hand on a Bible during a swearing-in with two other people

The Presidential Transition That Shattered America

A Trump-Biden transition is sure to be scary. But it’d be hard to beat Buchanan-Lincoln.
A close up of an electoral map from Scribner’s Statistical Atlas of the United States

The Electoral Punt

It can be hard to know what the Founders intended when they didn't know, either.

Re-watching ‘The Civil War’ During the Breonna Taylor and George Floyd Protests

The landmark Ken Burns documentary hasn’t aged well. But it continues to shape American perceptions about the Confederacy and slavery.
People in formal wear sitting in chairs, listening to a person behind a desk

Will We Ever Get Rid of the Electoral College?

The system that is nobody’s first choice.

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