Menu
Idea

reform movements

376
Filter by:

Filter by published date

Viewing 211–240 of 376 results. Go to first page
Vintage advertisment for Indian Land on sale, by the U.S. Department of the Interior

Universalizing Settler Liberty

America is best understood not as the first post-colonial republic, but as an expansionist nation built on slavery and native expropriation.
by Aziz Rana, Nikhil Pal Singh via Jacobin on August 4, 2014

What if the Fourth of July Were Dry?

In 1855, prohibitionists set their sights on the wettest day of the year.
by Kyle G. Volk via OUPblog on July 4, 2014
Side-by-side portraits of Franklin Pierce and Dorothea Dix

Dorothea Dix and Franklin Pierce: The Battle for the Mentally Ill

Dorothea Dix and Franklin Pierce were in many ways ideological soulmates, but he would not help her effort to improve conditions for the mentally ill.
via New England Historical Society on February 8, 2014

A Filthy History: When New Yorkers Lived Knee-Deep in Trash

How garbage physically shaped the development of New York.
by Hunter Oatman-Stanford, Robin Nagle via Collectors Weekly on June 24, 2013

The Manly Sport of American Politics

19th-century Americans abandoned the English phrasing of "standing" for election and begin to describe candidates who "run" for office. The race was on.
by Kenneth Cohen via Commonplace on April 1, 2012
Profile photograph of Jane Addams.

The Nancy Grace of Her Time?

Jane Addams was controversial and independent-minded.
by Ruth Graham via Slate on November 9, 2010

Political Construction of a Natural Disaster: The Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1853

The conversation around race after Hurricane Katrina echoed discourse from another New Orleans disaster 150 years before.
by Henry M. McKiven Jr. via Journal of American History on December 1, 2007
William Jennings Bryan, c. 1910s.

All You Need Is Love

The complex history, career, and legacy of one of America's most popular speakers and reformers.
by Ronald Steel via New York Review of Books on June 22, 2006

Don’t Despair About the Supreme Court

In 2005, Howard Zinn explained why it was naive to depend on the Court to defend the rights of marginalized Americans.
by Howard Zinn via The Progressive on October 21, 2005
Poet-playwright and political activist Imamu Amiri Baraka recites his poem, "Its Nation Time," at the National Black Political Convention.
partner

The Black Political Convention

Black Journal interviews with Imamu Amiri Baraka, poet-playwright and co-chairman of the National Black Political Convention.
by Black Journal via American Archive of Public Broadcasting on March 28, 1972
A protestor holds up a sign which reads "tax the rich."
partner

The Founders Knew Great Wealth Inequality Could Destroy Us

At the founding of America, leaders predicted that a concentration of wealth would weaken the republic.
by Daniel R. Mandell via Made By History on July 7, 2025
Book cover for The Invention of Design by Maggie Gram features a phone cord snaking around text.
partner

Irrelevant at Best, or Else Complicit

The state of design in 1970.
by Maggie Gram via HNN on June 3, 2025

The Other American ‘Popes’

Before Leo XIV, the weird, century-long history of Americans claiming to be pope.
by Daniel N. Gullotta via The Bulwark on May 30, 2025
Portrait of Henry George

“The Great Enigma of Our Times”

The 1881, Henry George’s ”Progress and Poverty” proposed a land value tax — helping to usher in the Progressive Era.
by Hunter Dukes via The Public Domain Review on May 21, 2025
Painting of a person doing arithemetic.
partner

Solve for AI

What the history of the pocket calculator reveals about the future of AI in classrooms.
by Bronwen Everill via HNN on April 30, 2025
Workmen clearing cobwebs from exterior of the White House, c. 1920.
partner

How to Succeed in Government Without Really Trying

The long history of promising an “efficient” federal government. 
by Camille Walsh via HNN on April 23, 2025
Fiorello La Guardia.

How Mayor Fiorello La Guardia Transformed New York City

Zohran Mamdani’s campaign is questioning what a socialist might accomplish as mayor of NYC. To answer it, it’s worth looking back on Fiorello La Guardia.
by Joshua B. Freeman via Jacobin on April 23, 2025
Knight on horseback fights a dragon.

The Georgist Roots of American Libertarianism

How did libertarians come to embrace Henry George, a thinker championed by political coalitions ranging from early zionists to the global Green Party?
by Reed Schwartz via Asterisk on April 15, 2025
Robert Moses sitting in front of a catelog of blueprints.

The Inadequacy of the Abundance Agenda

Three new books propose market solutions to problems that require government intervention. We’ve been here before. It didn’t end well.
by Timothy Noah via The New Republic on March 27, 2025
Stack of Newspapers.

A Brief History of America’s Campaign Against Dissident Newsmaking

On underground presses and state violence.
by Aaron Boehmer via Literary Hub on March 26, 2025
Floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Regime Change in the West?

Where amid this turmoil does neoliberalism stand? In emergency conditions it has been forced to take measures.
by Perry Anderson via London Review of Books on March 25, 2025
Six hands holding a sword with an eagle on the hilt.

The Democratic Promise of Manifest Destiny

All Americans with some education are aware that Manifest Destiny was one of the Bad Things in our past and very few know any more about it than that.
by Hamilton Craig via Compact on March 25, 2025
Two people wrestling. One wearing blue and the other wearing red.

Understanding the Evolving Culture-War Vernacular

The Right is exploiting a manufactured moral panic.
by Isaac Kamola via Academe on March 24, 2025
Cartoon of well-dressed arm holding a lit match

The Gilded Age Never Ended

Plutocrats, anarchists, and what Henry James grasped about the romance of revolution.
by Adam Gopnik via The New Yorker on February 24, 2025
Two ionic columns winding around each other

How Progressives Broke the Government

Democrats’ cultural aversion to power has cleaved an opening for Trump.
by Marc J. Dunkelman via The Atlantic on February 16, 2025
illustration of stack of books
partner

The Rise and Fall of Liberal Historiography

How historians changed their approach, from the 1960s to the present.
by Gabriel Winant via HNN on February 11, 2025
Birth control devices in different shapes and forms.

The Battle for Birth Control Could Have Gone Differently

Margaret Sanger and Mary Ware Dennett each had a different vision of reproductive freedom. Would reproductive rights be more secure if Dennett’s had prevailed?
by Joanna Scutts via The New Republic on January 3, 2025
Jimmy Carter waving and smiling at a crowd of supporters, surrounded by men in suits.

Jimmy Carter’s Improbable Road to the Presidency

The Southern president, who kept his head down following Brown v. Board of Education, would eventually declare that “the time for discrimination is over.”
by Joseph Crespino via The Nation on December 29, 2024
Illustration of sex workers behind waving American flag.

How the United States Tried to Get on Top of the Sex Trade

Why should American exceptionalism end at the red-light district?
by Rebecca Mead via The New Yorker on December 9, 2024
Linda McMahon speaking at the Republican National Convention on July 18 in Milwaukee.

Back to the Future

Why “Let’s have public schools like the Founding Fathers had” is such a terrible idea.
by Adam Laats via Slate on November 20, 2024
View More
30 of
376

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person

brought to you by
© Bunk History