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April 1999 photo of Los Angeles City Council candidate Alex Padilla addressing his supporters in Sylmar.

The Rise and Stumbles of the San Fernando Valley Latino Political Machine

On how Latino political power has changed Los Angeles.
by Gustavo Arellano via Los Angeles Times on February 27, 2024
Donald Trump in Alabama.
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To Understand Trump's Appeal, Look to Alabama History

The transformation of Alabama politics in the 1960s and 1970s reflected the rise of a new version of Republicanism that Trump has perfected.
by Ashley Steenson via Made By History on January 25, 2024
A kindergarten teacher coaches a group of crouched children to duck and cover in a national air raid drill, Chicago, 1954.
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The Politics of Fear Is Damaging American Education—And Has Been for Decades

Politicians have often sought to remedy educational panic with remedies that do more harm than good.
by Diana D'Amico Pawlewicz via Made By History on December 14, 2023
Nixon examining a roll of microfilm with a magnifying glass.

Microfilm Hidden in a Pumpkin Launched Richard Nixon’s Career 75 Years Ago

On Dec. 2, 1948, evidence stashed in a hollowed-out pumpkin incriminated suspected Soviet spy Alger Hiss and boosted a young Richard Nixon’s political status.
by Gordon F. Sander via Retropolis on December 2, 2023
New York state legislator George Michaels thinks hard at his desk

Revisiting New York’s Historic Abortion Law in “Deciding Vote”

Jeremy Workman and Robert Lyons’s film reconstructs the passage of a 1970 law that made the state a sanctuary for people seeking abortions.
by Robert Lyons, Jeremy Workman, Linnea Feldman Emison via The New Yorker on November 29, 2023
A collage in which a photograph of Blanche Ames Ames is superimposed on a photograph of John F. Kennedy.

How John F. Kennedy Fell for the Lost Cause

And the grandmother who wouldn’t let him get away with it.
by Jordan Virtue via The Atlantic on November 13, 2023
D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, left, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) greet the audience at a town hall meeting at Eastern High School in D.C. in 1995.

House GOP and D.C.: A Historically Strained Marriage Grows More Tenuous

Republicans have long made a sport of deriding Washington, portraying it as a dysfunctional, crime-infested “swamp."
by Paul Schwartzman via Retropolis on May 13, 2023
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.).
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Does John Fetterman’s Openness Signal New Acceptance of Mental Illness?

Some see the reaction to Sen. Fetterman’s announcement as a sign of progress, but that’s less true than you might think.
by Jonathan Sadowsky via Made By History on February 21, 2023
Then–Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama in Mitchell, S.D.

What Does It Take to Win?

A new history of American politics examines the past and future of political realignments.
by Kim Phillips-Fein via The Nation on January 24, 2023
Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson at his desk in November 1957.

When Lyndon B. Johnson Chose the Middle Ground on Civil Rights—and Disappointed Everyone

Always a dealmaker, then-senator LBJ negotiated with segregationists to pass a bill that cautiously advanced racial equality.
by Zachary Clary via Smithsonian on January 23, 2023
"Manhattan Nocturne," drawing of buildings by Armin Landeck (1938)

Excursus on the History of New York

The machine breaks down: A brief history of Tammany Hall.
by John Ganz via Unpopular Front on January 20, 2023
Douglas R. Stringfellow reading a statement before the press.

The Congressman Who ‘Embellished’ His Résumé Long Before George Santos

In the 1950's, Rep. Douglas Stringfellow was a promising young congressman with an incredible World War II story. Then the truth came out.
by Gillian Brockell via Retropolis on December 29, 2022
Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole standing alongside an elephant on Capitol Hill, 1995.

Myths of Doom

Can the origins of today’s right be traced to the 1990s?
by John Ganz via The Nation on November 29, 2022
Print shows Rebel troops killing the citizens of Lawrence, Kansas, and setting fire to the buildings.

Where Will This Political Violence Lead? Look to the 1850s.

In the mid-19th century, a pro-slavery minority used violence to stifle a growing anti-slavery majority, spurring their opposition to respond in kind.
by Joshua Zeitz via Politico Magazine on October 29, 2022
Black Americans getting off a bus during a "reverse freedom ride."

Racist Busing Rides Again

Moving migrants from Texas to Democratic strongholds is not new. The Reverse Freedom Rides of the 1960s hold lessons for activists of today.
by Matthew van Meter via Texas Observer on September 28, 2022
Hand using match to light many candles on top of a crumbling cake with white frosting, with the U.S. Capitol building aflame on top.

The Oldest Government In History

America’s gerontocracy is disconnecting Congress from the rest of the country.
by Annie Fu, Walt Hickey, Shayanne Gal via Insider on September 13, 2022
Josh Hawley at Senate confirmation hearing

Stranger Dangers: The Right's History of Turning Child Abuse Into a Political Weapon

Josh Hawley’s attacks on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson are part of a long, sad tradition.
by Paul M. Renfro, Ali Breland via Mother Jones on March 28, 2022
McGeorge Bundy with Lyndon Johnson in 1967

American Mandarins

David Halberstam’s title The Best and the Brightest was steeped in irony. Did these presidential advisers earn it?
by Edward Tenner via The American Scholar on March 24, 2022
Caesar, William McKinley, and Trump sporting three different comb-overs throughout history.

The Rise, Flop and Fall of the Comb-Over

Balding has been the constant scourge of man since the beginning of time, and for millennia, our best solution was the comb-over.
by Brian VanHooker via MEL on March 21, 2022
A man carries a Confederate battle flag through the halls of the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021.

A Brief History of Violence in the Capitol: The Foreshadowing of Disunion

The radicalization of a congressional clerk in the 1800s and the introduction of the telegraph set a young country on a new trajectory.
by Joanne B. Freeman, Clay S. Jenkinson via Governing on March 13, 2022
Nixon in front of presidential photographs.

Daniel Schorr and Nixon’s Tricky Road to Redemption

Nixon portrayed himself as a victim of the press. But from the 1952 Checkers speech through his post-presidency, he proved to be an able manipulator of the media.
by Ryan Reft via Tropics of Meta on February 25, 2022
Class photo, Geyer, Ohio, 1915
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Lessons from the History Textbook Wars of the 1920s

A century ago, pundits, special interests, and politicians weighed in on what should and shouldn't be taught in history and social studies courses.
by Bruce W. Dearstyne via HNN on February 20, 2022
Advertisement during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic.

Political Accountability and the 1918 Influenza Pandemic

Why do some political incumbents adopt aggressive measures to slow the spread of infectious diseases while others do not?
by Yuri M. Zhukov, Jacob Walden via Broadstreet on December 10, 2021
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.
by Richard Hall via HNN on September 19, 2021
Joe Biden

How Joe Biden Became Irish

The president has skillfully played up his Irish roots, but the story of his ancestry is more complicated.
by Ben Schreckinger via Politico Magazine on September 14, 2021

The Rise of Anti-History

The Trumpist wing of the GOP uses history as a bludgeon, without regard to context, logic, or proportionality.
by David A. Graham via The Atlantic on July 10, 2021
John Marshall Harlan and Robert James Harlan

The Black Hero Behind One of the Greatest Supreme Court Justices

John Marshall Harlan's relationship with an enslaved man who grew up in his home showed how respect could transcend barriers and point a path to freedom.
by Peter S. Canellos via Politico Magazine on June 6, 2021

The Unreconstructed Radical

Thaddeus Stevens was a fierce opponent of the “odious” compromises in the Constitution, and of the North’s compromises after the Civil War.
by Richard Kreitner via The Baffler on May 13, 2021
Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln’s Rowdy America

A new biography details the cultural jumble of literature, dirty jokes, and everything in between that went into the making of the foremost self-made American.
by Sean Wilentz via New York Review of Books on April 29, 2021
Drawing ofGeorge Washington addressing the Continental Congress.

‘George Washington’ Review: Our Founding Politician

Washington was a savvy packager of his own personal virtues. He knew that if you don’t engage in a bit of self-aggrandizement, you lose.
by Barton Swaim via The Wall Street Journal on February 15, 2021
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