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Patrick Henry giving a speech to a crowd of Virginians.

What Spurred the South to Join the American Revolution?

How a dispute with a Scottish lord over westward expansion, gunpowder, and the future of enslaved labor made the southern colonies’ embrace the radical cause.
by Andrew Lawler via Smithsonian Magazine on April 4, 2025
Two arrows pointing in different directions. One pointing at a red circle, the other pointing to the right.

The Culture War Doesn’t Distract Us From the Class War; It Directs Us To It

On William Safire and the "nattering nabobs of negativism."
by Corey Robin via Corey Robin Blog on March 4, 2025
Ronald Reagan standing before a podium and a row of American flags.

The Rise of Ronald Reagan, a Product of California

On the early career of the actor-cum-politician who changed America.
by Michael Hiltzik via Literary Hub on February 26, 2025
A rally for civil rights outside of the 1964 Republican National Convention.
partner

“A Party for the White Man”

The scene at the 1964 Republican National Convention, when Barry Goldwater was nominated and black Republicans’ worst fears about their party were confirmed.
by Joshua D. Farrington via HNN on February 25, 2025
Ken Burns speaking into microphone (left) and Donald Trump (right).

Ken Burns, Donald Trump, and the Lies that Bring Us Together

It may sound counterintuitive, but Ken Burns’ version of U.S. history actually has quite a bit in common with Trump’s version.
by Akim Reinhardt via 3 Quarks Daily on February 24, 2025
Lerone A. Martin

Christian Nationalists Don’t Want Us To Remember the Real MLK

The same Christian ideology that inspired J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI to surveil MLK is alive and well in the Trump administration.
by Lerone A. Martin, Josiah R. Daniels via Sojourners on January 21, 2025
A drawing of a person staring at two different smartphones, with robotic arms holding their head in place.

What If the Attention Crisis Is All a Distraction?

From the pianoforte to the smartphone, each wave of tech has sparked fears of brain rot. But the problem isn’t our ability to focus—it’s what we’re focusing on.
by Daniel Immerwahr via The New Yorker on January 20, 2025
Newborn babies sleeping in a maternity ward.

The Coming Assault on Birthright Citizenship

The Constitution is absolutely clear on this point, but will that matter?
by Amanda Frost via The Atlantic on January 7, 2025
Jimmy Carter in the 1970s visiting a town in Brazil that commemorates Confederate expats.

Jimmy Carter, 1924-2024

As an individual, Jimmy Carter stood as a rebuke to our venal and heartless political class. As a politician, his private virtues proved to be public vices.
by Tim Barker via Origins of Our Time on January 1, 2025
A large crowd of women marching in New York City for the Women's Strike for Equality in 1970.

When the Personal Was Political

Second-wave feminists meant business—but they had a lot of fun at it, too.
by Jill Filipovic via Democracy Journal on December 17, 2024
Donald Trump and RFK Jr. shaking hands.

The Magic Thinking of Kennedy-ism

The hero worship of the family of American royalty has a dark side: a tendency toward conspiracism that fits with the MAGA movement.
by Rick Perlstein via The American Prospect on December 5, 2024
Protest encampment at University of California Berkeley.

The Free Speech Movement at Sixty and Today’s Unfree Universities

Can speech be free when billionaires buy influence on campus?
by Robert Cohen via Academe on December 4, 2024
Art piece of W.E.B. DuBois and people with outstretched arms.

Solidarity and Gaza

Black people see what is happening to Palestinians, and many feel the tug of the familiar in their heart.
by Vann R. Newkirk II via The Atlantic on October 29, 2024
Title page of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Searching for the Elusive Man Who Inspired Uncle Tom’s Cabin

John Andrew Jackson spent a night at Harriet Beecher Stowe’s home as he fled north. Why do so few traces of his visit remain?
by Scott W. Stern via The New Republic on October 24, 2024
A monkey listening to a radio with headphones.

The Scopes Trial and the Two Visions of US Democracy

A new history revisits “the Trial of the Century” and its legacy in contemporary politics.
by Michael Kazin via The Nation on September 30, 2024
Barack Obama holds up a baby on the campaign trail
partner

Charm Offensive: Why Politicians Reach for ‘Relatable’

For American politicians, the obsession with appealing to the everyman dates back to the raucous campaign of 1840.
via Retro Report on September 15, 2024
John Andrew Jackson riding a galloping horse and tipping his hat.
partner

How Do We Tell a Tale of People Who Sought to Disappear?

The life of John Andrew Jackson — and the vacillating richness and scarcity of the archive.
by Susanna Ashton via HNN on August 13, 2024
Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale at 1984 presidential debate.

When a Debate Flop Raised Concerns About Ronald Reagan's Fitness to Run for Re-Election

During the 1984 campaign, the 73-year-old president meandered his way through his face-off against Walter Mondale, prompting questions about his mental acuity.
by Eli Wizevich via Smithsonian Magazine on July 11, 2024
Judge Learned Hand.

Learned Hand’s Spirit of Liberty

Eighty years ago, Americans embraced a new definition of their faith: “The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right.”
by Lincoln Caplan via The New Yorker on July 4, 2024
Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1857.

The Essential Emerson

The latest biography of the great transcendentalist captures the paradoxes of his Yankee mind.
by Allen Mendenhall via Law & Liberty on June 21, 2024
Juneteenth celebrations.

Before Juneteenth

A firsthand account of freedom’s earliest celebrations.
by Susannah J. Ural, Ann Marsh Daly via The Atlantic on June 17, 2024
A family affair: Roosevelt was just 31 in 1913, when President Woodrow Wilson appointed him assistant secretary of the U.S. Navy — a post previously held by his cousin Teddy.

The Making of FDR

Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s struggle against polio transformed him into the man who led the country through the Great Depression and World War II.
by Jonathan Darman via The Saturday Evening Post on April 5, 2024
Statute of Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia, with construction hook ready to remove it.
partner

History Shows the Danger of Comparing Trump to Jesus

It’s important to remember why analogies to Jesus should stay out of the political realm. The results are always ugly.
by Laura Brodie via Made By History on March 29, 2024
partner

Lessons from the 1976 Republican Convention: Why Ronald Reagan Lost the Nomination

In 1976, Ronald Reagan found owning the soul of a party isn’t the same as taking home its nomination.
via Retro Report on March 15, 2024
partner

Lessons From the 1964 Republican Convention: Declaring War on the Establishment

Donald Trump’s candidacy wasn’t the first time the Republican Party was split by an outsider declaring war on the establishment elite.
via Retro Report on March 13, 2024
Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln’s Faith

The President's spiritual journey transformed him and the nation.
by Joshua Zeitz via The Saturday Evening Post on February 12, 2024
U.S. Ambassador Daniel Moynihan discusses violence in the Middle East at the U.N. Security Council
partner

Changing Views on Israel Isolating the U.S. at the U.N.

Americans have been isolated at the U.N. on Israel for a half century — but that used to prompt fierce debate.
by Sean T. Byrnes via Made By History on January 18, 2024
flickr.com/photos/dalelanham
partner

Playing to the Cameras

The prominence of politicos-turned-pundits is a product of cable news' turn to opinion commentary as a cheap and easy way to meet the needs of 24/7 coverage.
by Kathryn Cramer Brownell via HNN on December 12, 2023
A poster of a colonial man ringing a bell in front of Independence Hall with the words "4 Minute Men" at the top
partner

The US Propaganda Machine of World War I

As the United States prepared to enter World War I, the government created the first modern state propaganda office, the Committee on Public Information.
by Livia Gershon, Nick Fischer via JSTOR Daily on November 17, 2023
Charlie Chaplin in a still from “The Great Dictator.”

The War on Charlie Chaplin

He was one of the world’s most celebrated and beloved stars. Then his adopted country turned against him.
by Louis Menand via The New Yorker on November 13, 2023
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