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Election Day in Philadelphia, John Lewis Krimmel.

A More Imperfect Union: How Differing National Visions Divided the North and the South

On the fragile facade of republicanism in 19th century America.
by Alan Taylor via Literary Hub on May 21, 2024
The cover of "Sectionalism and American Political Development: 1880-1980"

Sectional Industrialization

Political scientist Richard Bensel explains the feedback loops between policy commitments of political elites and the regional distribution of political power.
by Justin H. Vassallo, Richard Franklin Bensel via Phenomenal World on January 7, 2023

Raising Cane

The violence on Capitol Hill that foreshadowed a bloody war.
by Joanne B. Freeman via Lapham’s Quarterly on September 15, 2018
Violence during the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville on August 12, 2017.

America's Deadly Divide - and Why it Has Returned

Civil War historian David Blight reflects on America’s Disunion – then and now.
by David W. Blight via The Guardian on August 20, 2017
U.S Custom House.

Lessons from Early America’s Tariff Wars

The 1790s debate shows that, even when they aim at moral goods, tariffs abet cronyism and corruption.
by John C. Pinheiro via Law & Liberty on April 23, 2025
1924 Democratic convention at Madison Square Garden.

Why the 1924 Democratic National Convention Was the Longest and Most Chaotic of Its Kind

A century ago, the party took a record 103 ballots and 16 days of intense, violent debate to choose a presidential nominee.
by Eli Wizevich via Smithsonian on June 24, 2024
The John Rankin House, an original stop on the Underground Railroad.

The Underground Railroad Was the Ultimate Conspiracy to Southern Enslavers

And justified the most extreme responses.
by Colin Dickey via Atlas Obscura on July 11, 2023
Methodist Episcopal Church leaders: five white men and one Black man.

Black Methodists, White Church

How freedmen navigated an unofficially segregated Methodist Episcopal Church.
by Paul William Harris via OUPblog on May 22, 2023
Abraham Lincoln.

The Two Constitutions

James Oakes’s deeply researched book argues that two very different readings of the 1787 charter put the United States on a course of all but inevitable conflict.
by David W. Blight via New York Review of Books on May 18, 2023
Painting of the drafters if the U.S. Constitution

A Colorblind Compromise?

“Colorblindness,” an ideology that denies race as an organizing principle of the nation’s structural order, reaches back to the drafting of the US Constitution.
by Matthew Wills, Kasey Henricks via JSTOR Daily on September 9, 2022
Black and white portrait of Joseph Lane in his suit.

What if Joseph Lane of Oregon had become President in 1861?

How would the presidency have looked under Joseph Lane, a Democrat, as opposed to Abraham Lincoln?
by Max Longley via Emerging Civil War on August 14, 2022
A street with a sign above it reading "Welcome to San Bernardino."

California's Never-Ending Secessionist Movement — and its Grim Ties To Slavery in the State

San Bernardino County may explore seceding from California. Many of the earliest separatists wanted to transform Southern California into a slave state.
by Kevin Waite via Los Angeles Times on August 7, 2022
Lithograph of African Americans in prayer as Liberty lays a wreath on Charles Sumner’s casket. By Matt Morgan, from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, 1874.

Reconciliation Process

When Charles Sumner died in 1874, a bill he had sponsored two years earlier threatened to overshadow his legacy.
by Sarah J. Purcell via Lapham’s Quarterly on April 13, 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
John Brown, 1859

Paving the Way to Harpers Ferry: The Disunion Convention of 1857

Southern pro-slavery states weren't the only states calling for disunion before the Civil War erupted.
by David T. Dixon via Emerging Civil War on February 16, 2022
A bronze statue of Civil War soldiers on horseback, in front of the U.S. Capitol building.

How Twitter Explains the Civil War (and Vice Versa)

The proliferation of antebellum print is analogous to our own tectonic shifts in how people communicate and what they communicate about.
by Ariel Ron via The Strong Paw Of Reason on January 6, 2022
Plantation house in the snow.

The Grim History of Christmas for Slaves in the Deep South

"If you read enough sources, you run into cases of slaves spending a lot of time over Christmas crying."
by Olivia B. Waxman, Robert E. May via TIME on December 21, 2021
Image of John C. Calhoun

How Slavery Haunts Today’s Big Debates About Federal Spending

John C. Calhoun knew what a strong federal government might do.
by Ariel Ron via Slate on September 22, 2021
Depiction of an agricultural fair with crowds of people gathered around exhibit halls.

Slavery, Technology and the Social Origins of the US Agricultural State

Ariel Ron discusses the rise of the agricultural state in his book, Grassroots Leviathan: Agricultural Reform and the Rural North in the Slaveholding Republic.
by Ariel Ron via Broadstreet on September 3, 2021
The plough, the loom and the anvil book drawing

In the Common Interest

How a grassroots movement of farmers laid the foundation for state intervention in the economy, challenging the slaveholding South.
by Nic Johnson, Chris Hong, Robert Manduca via Boston Review on May 18, 2021
John C. Calhoun

American Heretic, American Burke

A review of Robert Elder's new biography of John C. Calhoun.
by Allen C. Guelzo via The New Criterion on February 4, 2021
State troopers guarding a roadblock during an armed standoff at the “embassy” of the separatist group Republic of Texas, Fort Davis, Texas, May 1997

Why It’s Time to Take Secessionist Talk Seriously

Disunion is hardly a new theme in American politics. In this moment of tumult, it would be unwise to rule out its return.
by Richard Kreitner via New York Review of Books on January 19, 2021
Alexander Hamilton on the ten dollar bill

What We Still Get Wrong About Alexander Hamilton

Far from a partisan for free markets, the Founding Father insisted on the need for economic planning. We need more of that vision today.
by Michael Busch, Christian Parenti via Boston Review on December 14, 2020
Man waves Trump flag in front of the Supreme Court
partner

When States Try to Bend Other States to Their Will, it Threatens the American Union

States have a legitimate way to influence national politics. Forcing their will on other states isn't it.
by Grace Mallon via Made By History on December 14, 2020
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.
by Rebecca Onion, Susan Schulten via Slate on October 28, 2020
Drawing of a man and his donkey from the book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, circa 1800s.

Americans Have Always Celebrated Hacks and Swindlers

In 19th-century New England, rule-breaking Yankees were a source of national pride.
by Hugh McIntosh via Zócalo Public Square on September 16, 2019

The Question Without a Solution

The horrors of the fugitive slave laws, the costs of union, and the value of comity.
by Alan Jacobs via Weekly Standard on November 24, 2018
partner

How the Supreme Court Fractured the Nation — and How It Threatens to Do So Again

Abortion and America’s new sectional divide.
by H. W. Brands via Made By History on November 20, 2018

America’s Struggle for Moral Coherence

The problem of how to reconcile irreconcilable values is what led to the Civil War. It hasn’t gone away.
by Andrew Delbanco via The Atlantic on November 12, 2018

America Descends Into the Politics of Rage

Trump and other peddlers of angry rhetoric may reap short-term gains, but history suggests they will provoke a fearsome backlash.
by Joanne B. Freeman via The Atlantic on October 22, 2018
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