Filter by:

Filter by published date

Viewing 121–150 of 433 results. Go to first page
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.
Ulysses S. Grant statue in front of the capitol
partner

Grant — Not Lincoln or Roosevelt — May Hold the Key to Biden’s Success

Biden needs to stare down White supremacy, which requires strenuous enforcement of the laws.
Presidents Obama, Trump, Bush, and Clinton
partner

Who Is The Worst American President of All Time?

The answer can change over time.
The Oval Office as redecorated for President Biden

A Look Inside Biden’s Oval Office

The oval office looks different now that President Biden is its occupant.
Exhibit

President Precedents

How Americans understand the powers of the office and the legacies of past leaders.

Simon Bolívar Crossing the Andes, after a painting by Arayo Gómez, 1857; it is based on Jacques-Louis David’s Napoleon Crossing the Alps

Democracy’s Demagogues

A new history of five heroes of the revolutionary period considers the power and instability of charismatic leadership.
Members of the National Guard stand behind a fence outside of the U.S. Capitol building.

Impeachment May Not Work. Here’s the Next Best Way to Dump Trump

The 14th Amendment offers a remedy that is both simpler and likelier to work.
Comic with Donald Trump at the head of a White House conference room.

The End of the Businessman President

Donald Trump’s catastrophic tenure will be the nail in the coffin of the worst idea in politics: that the government can be run like a corporation.
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.

Can Biden Be Pushed Left?

History suggests that what you see on the campaign trail, or even in a candidate’s past record, is not always what you get from a president once in power.
President Trump in car

Trump’s Illness and the History of Presidential Health

Are White House doctors keeping the public adequately informed about President Trump’s battle with COVID-19?

Who Is in Control?

Hospitalized presidents who don’t enact the 25th Amendment.
President Trump in front of a portrait of George Washington

We Nearly Lost Our First President to the Flu. The Country Could Have Died, too.

In 1790, George Washington fell severely ill, threatening his life and the young nation he led.
Doctor in white coat giving thumbs up

Presidential Physicians Don’t Always Tell the Public the Full Story

They are beholden only to their patient, not to the American people.
Woodrow Wilson wearing a black coat

What Happened When Woodrow Wilson Came Down With the 1918 Flu?

The president contracted influenza while attending peace talks in Paris, but the nation was never told the full, true story.
Jimmy Carter speaking.

What Happens When a President Really Listens?

Jonathan Alter on Jimmy Carter ditching politics for truth.
John Adams

On the Peaceful Transfer of Power

Lessons from 1800.
Republican Warren G. Harding speaking to voters from his front porch in Ohio.

How the Promise of Normalcy Won the 1920 Election

A hundred years ago, the U.S. was riven by disease, inflamed with racial violence, and torn between isolation and globalism. Sound familiar?

How the GOP Became the Party of Resentment

Have historians of the conservative movement focused too much on its intellectuals?

Reaganland Is the Riveting Conclusion to a Story That Still Isn’t Over

Rick Perlstein’s epic series shows political history and cultural history cannot be disentangled.
partner

George Washington Invoked Executive Privilege. But He’d Reject Barr’s Version.

Washington supported a much more limited conception of executive privilege.
A campaign illustration featuring busts of Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson over festoons featuring eagles, smoke, and the American flag.

Andrew Johnson’s Abuse of Pardons Was Relentless

Worried that the presidential power to undo convictions can be taken too far? Look no further than Lincoln’s successor.
Donald Trump giving a speech in front of a large photo of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

‘The Most Ignorant and Unfit’: What Made America’s Worst Ever Leader?

The real challenge is not simply to replace Trump, but to fix a system that produces, promotes, and protects the toxicity that defines his presidency.

The Republican President who Called for Racial Justice in America After Tulsa Massacre

Warren G. Harding’s comments about race and equality were remarkable for 1921.

The Unpresident and the Unredeemed Promise

A combination of historical surpluses—the afterlives of slavery, of the deranged presidency—has raised the stakes in the present struggle.
John Tyler.

Two on John Tyler: Tippecanoe and Tyler Too!

After the Whig president’s shocking death, his vice president and successor proved to be a Whig by expedience only

A 'Hamilton'-esque Scandal Helped Give Trump his Cudgel

On the origins of the Insurrection Act, which allows the president to call on federal troops and state militias to put down insurrections.

If This Is Like 1968, Then Trump Is in Big Trouble

Trump campaigns like Richard Nixon and George Wallace, but in reality, he is Lyndon Johnson: a man who has lost control of the machine.
partner

We’ve Forgotten the Worst President in American History

Could Donald Trump really rival James Buchanan?

The Corrupt Bargain

Eric Foner reviews two new books that make the case against the Electoral College.

Trump and Lincoln Are Opposite Kinds of Presidents

History is not kind to those who divide and dither.

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person