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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.

‘The President Was Not Encouraging’: What Obama Really Thought About Biden

Behind the friendship was a more complicated relationship, which now drives the former vice president to prove his partner wrong.

The Confederates Loved America, and They’re Still Defining What Patriotism Means

The ideology of the men who celebrated the United States while fighting for its dissolution is still very much alive.
Photograph of Michael Lind wearing a blazer and tie.

Michael Lind on Reviving Democracy

To fix things, we must acknowledge the nature of the problem.
Crowd of people at the counting of Electoral College votes in the U.S. Congress.

The Electoral College’s Racist Origins

More than two centuries after it was designed to empower southern white voters, the system continues to do just that.

Civility Is Overrated

The gravest danger to American democracy isn’t an excess of vitriol—it’s the false promise of civility.

The Achievements, and Compromises, of Two Reconstruction-era Amendments

While they advanced African American rights, they had serious flaws, Eric Foner writes.
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.
Richard Holbrooke and two images of people carrying weapons of war.

The End of the American Century

What the life of Richard Holbrooke tells us about the decay of Pax Americana.

Empire of the Census

America’s long history of manipulating its headcount for political gain.

Sick Days

How Congress bent the rules to combat the Spanish Flu while it's own members began to become victims of the pandemic
1850s engraving of the Boston Massacre

Black Lives and the Boston Massacre

John Adams’s famous defense of the British may not be, as we’ve understood it, an expression of principle and the rule of law.

Black Charleston and the Battle Over Confederate Statues

The debate over a Charleston monument to John Calhoun exemplifies the problems of contextualizing Confederate monuments.

Anita Hill and Her 1991 Congressional Defenders to Joe Biden: You Were Part of the Problem

Hill revisits the infamous Clarence Thomas hearings with five of the congressional women who supported her.

Confederate Revisionist History

Americans should not honor a revolt to uphold slavery with monuments or florid displays.

The South Only Embraced States' Rights as It Lost Control of the Federal Government

For decades, slaveholders were powerfully committed to the Union. That changed when Washington stopped protecting their interests.

Let’s Relitigate the Civil War

There can be no "compromise" with the false view of America's past from Trumpists and pop historians alike.
Protester with a sign that reads "Save our Monuments"

Pondering the Question of Confederate Honor

Yes, honorable men can fight for dishonorable causes.

The Cuban Missile Crisis at 55

The bullshit, the truth… and Trump.

Donald Trump Bullsh*ts His Way Through Civil War History

"Why could that one not have been worked out?"
The inauguration of Abraham Lincoln in 1861.
partner

The Most Contentious Presidential Transition in American History

Was Abraham Lincoln's the most tumultuous presidential transition in American history?

150 Years of Misunderstanding the Civil War

As the 150th of the Battle of Gettysburg approaches, it's time to question the popular account of a war that tore apart the nation.

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