Menu
Idea

rhetoric

843
Filter by:

Filter by published date

Viewing 181–210 of 843 results. Go to first page
The American flag on fire.

The Fight for Our America

There have always been two Americas. One based in religious zeal, mythology, and inequality; and one grounded in rule of the people and the pursuit of equality.
by Heather Cox Richardson via The New Republic on September 26, 2023
A collection of ninteenth-century manuscripts on top of a library table.

Fighting Words: The Pamphlets of a Democratic Revolution

To judge from the Concord collection, the public forum of antebellum America was no model of democratic deliberation.
by Robert A. Gross via Commonplace on September 19, 2023
Freedpeople sit at Foller’s House in Cumberland Landing, Va., 1862.

If “Woke” Dies, Our Nation’s Truths Die with It

Ron DeSantis wants to retrofit history to conform to conservative ideology.
by Tera W. Hunter via Hammer & Hope on August 30, 2023
Joe Biden holding hands with Black members of Congress.

Black Class Matters

Class conflict undermines assumptions about political solidarity.
by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor via Hammer & Hope on August 30, 2023
Members of Moms for Liberty stand outside a school, one holding a sign reading "I don't co-parent with the government."

Moms for Liberty Is Riding High. It Should Beware What Comes Next.

Yelling about schools gets people riled up. The outcome can be unpredictable.
by Adam Laats via Slate on August 29, 2023

Martin Luther King’s Dream at 60

King offered Americans the choice between acting in accordance with the Constitution and resistance to change.  In many ways, we face the same choice today.
by Eric Foner via The Nation on August 28, 2023
A political cartoon of Spiro Agnew holding an axe behind his back.

Oh, We Knew Agnew

On Spiro Agnew's lasting legacy.
by Jerald Podair, Zach Messitte, Charles J. Holden via Los Angeles Review of Books on August 27, 2023
A man and a dog walk among blighted buildings in the Bronx.

The Persistence of American Poverty

“We could afford to end poverty,” Matthew Desmond tells us. That we don’t is a choice.
by Marcia Chatelain via The Nation on August 21, 2023
Spectators lined up outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 12, 1977, hoping to witness arguments in the Regents of University of California v. Bakke case.

The Uses of Affirmative Action

The right denounced it as “reverse racism,” while the liberal center hailed it as the endpoint of egalitarianism. But it has never been either.
by Adolph Reed Jr. via The Nation on August 9, 2023
Ron DeSantis

DeSantis, Trump and The History of Treating D.C. Residents Like They Aren’t Americans

A history as intertwined with race as with partisanship.
by Gillian Brockell via Retropolis on August 8, 2023
Title page and verso of a 1727 printing of Plutarch's Lives

"Those Noble Qualities": Classical Pseudonyms as Reflections of Divergent Republican Value Systems

Writing under ancient veneers allowed partisans to politicize and weaponize ancient history during the turbulent start of the Federal Republic.
by Shawn David McGhee via Journal of the American Revolution on August 3, 2023
Shadow of Jason Aldean performing on stage.

Jason Aldean's 'Small Town' Is Part of a Long Legacy with a Very Dark Side

The country song that pits idyllic country life against the corruption of the city is a well-worn trope. Aldean's song reveals the dark heart of the tradition.
by Amanda Marie Martinez via NPR on July 22, 2023
A young Black boy pictured mid-flip, while his peers look on. In the background are a row of houses, one of which abandoned with the windows punched out.

What We Meant When We Said 'Crackhead'

“I’ve learned, through hundreds of interviews and years of research, is that what crack really did was expose every vulnerability of society.”
by Donovan X. Ramsey via The Atlantic on July 11, 2023
Tweet by Josh Hawley of a quotation he falsely attributes to Patrick Henry.

Senator Josh Hawley Tweeted a Christian Nationalist Quote Falsely Attributed to Patrick Henry

It was actually from a 1950s antisemitic and white supremacist magazine. Who cares?
by Seth Cotlar via Rightlandia on July 6, 2023
Layered collage of an eye over the portrait of Thomas Jefferson, against the backdrop of the Declaration of Independence.

Who Really Wrote ‘the Pursuit of Happiness’?

The voice of Doctor Johnson, archcritic of the American Revolution, was constantly in mind for the Declaration of Independence’s drafter.
by Peter Moore via The Atlantic on July 4, 2023
Kentucky family with hookworm standing in front of their house.

The American Murderer

Hookworm eradication efforts, along with the development of institutionalized public health, often neglected the health of the Black community.
by Katie R. Gibson via Nursing Clio on June 28, 2023

Doing the Work

The Protestant ethic and the spirit of wokeness.
by Ian Buruma via Harper’s on June 20, 2023
Cliff Joseph's art, Blackboard, 1969. One adult and one young Black person stand in front of a blackboard.

The Long War on Black Studies

It would be a mistake to think of the current wave of attacks on “critical race theory” as a culture war. This is a political battle.
by Robin D. G. Kelley via New York Review of Books on June 17, 2023
Ronald Reagan with James Watt

Good Riddance to the Architect of the GOP’s Environmental Culture Wars

James Watt was a fiery evangelical, a cultural laughingstock—and instrumental in shaping modern GOP rhetoric on the environment.
by Liza Featherstone via The New Republic on June 16, 2023
Zoomed in picture of Pat Robertson's face.

Pat Robertson’s Genocidal God Has Called Him Home

The political preacher who made the religion look bad.
by Jeet Heer via The Nation on June 9, 2023
Empty, dimly lit interior of shopping mall.

Nostalgia's Empire

We should interrogate nostalgia’s primacy without advocating for its eradication.
by Grafton Tanner, Johny Pitts via Public Books on June 8, 2023
John Birch Society banner over table with books

How the John Birch Society Won the Long Game

The American right doesn’t need the John Birch Society these days, but that is because it’s adopted the Birchers’ extremism wholesale.
by Nathan J. Robinson via The Nation on June 8, 2023
1988 Republican presidential candidates on the debate stage.
partner

Republicans Didn’t Always Run Far to the Right in Presidential Primaries

The 1988 presidential primary showed it wasn't always like this — and helped guide the GOP to where it is now.
by Robert L. Fleegler via Made By History on June 8, 2023
Soldiers, sailors and marines in Los Angeles, June 7, 1943, stopping a street car looking for zoot suits.

Where and How the Zoot Suit Riots Swept Across L.A.

A location-based timeline and interactive map of the L.A. Zoot Suit Riots.
by Christian Orozco via Los Angeles Times on June 2, 2023
Hayden White from the cover of "The Ethics of Narrative."

The Ironic Radical: On Hayden White’s “The Ethics of Narrative”

The kinds of narratives historians tend to fall back on constrain our ability to imagine alternatives to the way things have been, and to the way things are.
by Michael S. Roth via Los Angeles Review of Books on June 2, 2023
A man speaking to a veteran.

Treason Made Odious Again

Reflections from the Naming Commission, and the front lines of the army's war on the Lost Cause.
by Connor Williams via Muster on May 30, 2023
Artwork of Sojourner Truth, against a background of newspaper articles for women's rights.

The Truth About Sojourner Truth

She was a woman, but she was not the author of the speech attributed to her in popular lore.
by Mary Cuff via Law & Liberty on May 26, 2023
The Freedmen’s Bureau drawn by A.R. Waud, 1868.

Social Welfare and the Politics of Race in the Post-Civil War South

The politicized rhetoric linking race and welfare has a long, ingrained history.
by Ryan W. Keating via Black Perspectives on May 24, 2023
Miles Davis, Howard McGhee, and unknown pianist. NYC, September 1947.

On Menand’s "The Free World" and Dinerstein’s "The Origins of Cool in Postwar America"

Two differing explorations of post-WWII culture, politics, and ideals.
by Michael J. Kramer via Society for U.S. Intellectual History on May 21, 2023
A microphone animated as a black snake.

The Dark Side of Defamation Law

A revered Supreme Court ruling protected the robust debate vital to democracy—but made it harder to constrain misinformation. Can we do better?
by Jeannie Suk Gersen via The New Yorker on May 11, 2023
View More
30 of
843

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person

brought to you by
© Bunk History