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Painting of Daniel Boone escorting settlers through the Cumberland Gap by George Caleb Bingham. (Washington University, St. Louis)

The Articles of Confederation and Western Expansion

In settling a rivalry between Maryland and Virginia and preventing individual states from getting into bed with France and Spain, maybe the Articles weren't a failure after all.
Early 20th-century women sitting with tea and a guitar.

Secret, Unruly, and Progressive: The History of the Heterodoxy Women’s Club

Bohemian Greenwich Village and the secret club that sparked modern feminism.
Drawing of John Stuart Mill

Haiti, Slavery and John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill was an unusual man who lived an extraordinary life devoted to a set of problems that once again dominate political thought in the 21st century.
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 woman tends to a lawn at the corner of Confederate Lane and Plantation Parkway in the Mosby Woods neighborhood of Fairfax on Wednesday. The city is considering changing several names in the Civil War-themed development, but neighbors are divided. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

A Civil War Among Neighbors Over Confederate-Themed Streets

Debates between neighbors escalate over the use of Confederate names within a Northern Virginia neighborhood.
Oprah Winfrey speaking at a podium.
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Oprah’s Shows on the L.A. Riots Reveal What We’ve Lost Without Her Program

The power of daytime talk shows — especially “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”
Collage of the U.S. Capitol, a factory, and the earth, connected by coins and price tag stickers.

How the Oil Industry Cast Climate Policy as an Economic Burden

For 30 years, the debate has largely ignored the soaring costs of inaction.
Illustration of a classroom by Joan Yang.

Why Teachers Are Afraid to Teach History

The attacks on CRT have terrified our educators. But the public school system has always made it hard to teach controversial subjects.
Screen shots of PBS NewsHour anchors with title cards about conflicts in Angola, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Afghanistan.
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“Burning with a Deadly Heat”

PBS NewsHour coverage of the hot wars of the Cold War.
Image of a social studies book coming to visual life with edits to the content.

Revising America's Racist Past

How the 'critical race theory' debate is crashing headlong into efforts to update social studies standards.
‘Flight of Lord Dunmore’; postcard, 1907.

The Paradox of the American Revolution

Recent books by Woody Holton and Alan Taylor offer fresh perspectives on early US history but overstate the importance of white supremacy as its driving force.
Photo illustration of two hands pulling New York Times Magazine article

The Historians Are Fighting

Inside the profession, the battle over the 1619 Project continues.
Two characters from “Grey’s Anatomy" sit against a wall.

How TV Lied About Abortion

For decades, dramatized plot lines about unwanted and unexpected pregnancies helped create our real-world abortion discourse.
Mitch McConnell

How Did the Senate End Up With Supermajority Gridlock?

The Constitution meant for Congress to pass bills by a simple majority. But the process has changed over the decades.
Painting of the Parthenon by Frederic Edwin Church

A Story of Use and Abuse

Athenian democracy in the political imagination.
An unkempt cemetery

When Black History Is Unearthed, Who Gets to Speak for the Dead?

Efforts to rescue African American burial grounds and remains have exposed deep conflicts over inheritance and representation.
A portrait of John C. Calhoun

No, John C. Calhoun Didn’t Invent the Filibuster

As convenient as it might be to blame the filibuster on the famous defender of slavery, the historical record is much messier.
Luther Martin
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For Constitution Day, Let's Toast the Losers of the Convention

Anti-federalist Luther Martin's agenda failed at the Constitutional Convention, but his criticisms of the Founders may still resonate with us today.

Was Declaring Independence Even Important?

Reflections on the latest public debate between historians about the causes of the American Revolution.
A protest sign against involvement in WWII
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A Brief History of the "Isolationist" Strawman

The word “isolationist” has been used by the U.S. foreign policy establishment to narrow the range of acceptable public opinion on America’s role in the world.
Sign reading "Whatever you're not changing you are choosing"

"The Culture Wars— They’re Back!"

Divisive concepts, critical race theory, and more in 2021.
Removal of graffitied Stonewall Jackson statue

The Fate of Confederate Monuments Should Be Clear

We know why they were built and why they have to come down.
1747 map of Nova Scotia

Phraseology and the "Fourteenth Colony"

There have been at least eight provinces in British North America labeled the "fourteenth colony." They cannot all claim the same title.
Portrait of Thomas Jefferson

Sunrise at Monticello

Jefferson and his connection to partisanship in early America.

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.
A second grade teacher and her students pledge allegiance to the flag circa 1970.

Is There an Uncontroversial Way to Teach America’s Racist History?

A historian on the unavoidable discomfort around anti-racist education.
Fist drawn on chalkboard

What Do Conservatives Fear About Critical Race Theory?

In the Texas legislature, Republicans seemed willing to acknowledge systemic racism but resistant to the idea of talking about it with children.
Students saying the pledge of allegiance in a classroom

The Fog of History Wars

Old feuds remind us that history is continually revised, driven by new evidence and present-day imperatives.
Workers cover a statue of Christopher Columbus in Chicago before the start of a Juneteenth march on June 19, 2020. The memorial was later removed.

When Monuments Go Bad

The Chicago Monuments Project is searching for ways to resolve its landscape of problematic statues and make room for a new, different kind of public memorial.
The Confederate statue, center, which was recently relocated from the Greensville County Courthouse, in its new location in the Emporia Cemetery in Virginia. (Julia Rendleman for The Washington Post)

The Confederacy’s Final Resting Place

Are cemeteries the right place to put Confederate statues and memorials being removed from court houses and town squares across the South?

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