U.S. Senate — Bunk History

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How Congress Failed to Plan for Doomsday

What would happen if some crazed gunman or terrorist massacred Congress? We don’t really know — and that’s bad news for our democracy.

by Garrett M. Graff via Politico Magazine on June 15, 2017

Greg Gianforte Is Lucky. Reporters Once Carried Daggers To Deal With Unruly Politicians.

There is a long history of congressmen behaving badly.

by Michael S. Rosenwald via Retropolis on May 25, 2017

The History of 'Stolen' Supreme Court Seats

As the new administration seeks to fill a vacancy on the Court, a look back at the forgotten mid-19th century battles over the judiciary.

by Erick Trickey via Smithsonian on March 20, 2017

Joe Biden as a new Senator, sitting next to framed photographs of his family

Death and the All-American Boy

Joe Biden was a lot more careful around the press after this 1974 profile.

by Kitty Kelley via Washingtonian on June 1, 1974

Charles Sumner

What We Can Learn From the Senator Who Nearly Died for Democracy

The brutal caning of Sen. Charles Sumner in 1856 shows the difference between courage and concession.

by Zaakir Tameez via Washington Post on June 1, 2025

Senator John Conness.

This Dead California Senator Can Save Birthright Citizenship

In the 19th century, John Conness defended the 14th Amendment and shut down proto-Trumpians.

by Joe Mathews via Zócalo Public Square on February 11, 2025

John Wayne plays Genghis Khan in "The Conqueror" (1956)

The John Wayne Flop Linked to High Cancer Rates

"The Conqueror" was filmed downwind of a nuclear test site. A new documentary tells the story of the fatal film set, and the community affected.

by Zach Budryk via The Hill on June 30, 2024

Spiro T. Agnew button.

The Wildest Month of the US Presidency, Part I

The Spiro Agnew Edition.

by Garrett M. Graff via Doomsday Scenario on October 10, 2023

J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Oppenheimer, Nullified and Vindicated

The inventor of the atomic bomb, the subject of Christopher Nolan’s new film, was the chief celebrity victim of the national trauma known as McCarthyism.

by Kai Bird via The New Yorker on July 7, 2023

Samuel Chase.

An Intemperate Man: The Impeachment of Justice Samuel Chase

The presence of Federalist judges frustrated Thomas Jefferson and his Democratic-Republican Party, bring justice Samuel Chase under fire.

by Michael Liss via 3 Quarks Daily on June 19, 2023

Polar bear walks across melting ice in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Did One Photograph Change the Fate of the Arctic Wildlife Refuge?

What the political fight over a photo teaches us about the power of art, grassroots activism and images.

by Finis Dunaway via Made By History on March 3, 2023

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.).

Does John Fetterman’s Openness Signal New Acceptance of Mental Illness?

Some see the reaction to Sen. Fetterman’s announcement as a sign of progress, but that’s less true than you might think.

by Jonathan Sadowsky via Made By History on February 21, 2023

Nikki Haley speaking at the White House.

The Asian American Presidential Nominee Who Blazed a Path for Nikki Haley

What the differences between Hiram Fong and Nikki Haley tell us about changes to the GOP.

by Vivian Yan-Gonzalez via Made By History on February 8, 2023

Supporters cheer during an election night watch party for Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D) in Atlanta

Warnock’s Win Points to the Need For Ongoing Political Organizing

Georgia’s own history highlights what out-organizing voter suppression really entails.

by Dan Berger via Made By History on December 7, 2022

African Americans campaigning for Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker, and Confederate symbols in Georgia.

Minority Rule(s)

Georgia’s competitive runoff election is the result of centuries of white supremacist efforts.

by Anthony Conwright via The Forum on December 6, 2022

Toward a Non-Usable History

"The New York Times" as the world's most exhausted professor.

by William Hogeland via Hogeland's Bad History on September 19, 2022

Drawing of a voting booth on top of a gerrymandered district with a saw cutting the floor out from under it.

American Democracy Was Never Designed to Be Democratic

The partisan redistricting tactics of cracking and packing aren’t merely flaws in the system—they are the system.

by Louis Menand via The New Yorker on August 15, 2022

Portrait of Roscoe Conkling taken between 1860 and 1865.

The Senator Who Said No to a Seat on the Supreme Court — Twice

Roscoe Conkling was a successful politician and an able lawyer. But the colorful and irascible senator had no desire to serve on the high court.

by Robert B. Mitchell via Retropolis on February 27, 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

Picture of the field at the Cyclone's Stadium in Coney Island, New York.

How Government Devastated Minor League Baseball

And why stopping the subsidies can help bring it back.

by Matt Welch via Reason on October 10, 2021

The word slavery in a dictionary crossed out

We Found the Textbooks of Senators Who Oppose The 1619 Project and Suddenly Everything Makes Sense

To our surprise, most received a well-rounded education on the history of Black people in America. Just kidding.

by Michael Harriot via The Root on May 6, 2021

Richard Mentor Johnson.

He Became the Nation’s Ninth Vice President. She Was His Enslaved Wife.

Her name was Julia Chinn.

by Ronald G. Shafer via Washington Post on February 7, 2021

Side-by-side of Josh Hawley and David Atchison

Josh Hawley Is Not the First Missouri Senator with Blood on His Hands

The Bleeding Kansas parallels with our current moment get weirder and darker.

by Steven Lubet via Tropics of Meta on January 13, 2021

Ted Cruz.

The Dangerous Historical Precedent for Ted Cruz’s Shameless Electoral College Gambit

The Texas senator claims to be moved by the spirit of 1876, but he’s just another huckster playing a risky game with democracy.

by Matt Ford via The New Republic on January 5, 2021

Donald Trump speaks with reporters on Thanksgiving, November 26th, 2020.

“Almost the Complete Opposite of Fascism”

A conversation with Corey Robin on the surprisingly weak presidency of Donald Trump.

by Corey Robin, David Klion via Jewish Currents on December 4, 2020

Minority Rule Cannot Last in America

by Kenneth Owen via The Atlantic on December 2, 2020

What Jaime Harrison's Race Meant for the South

Jaime Harrison lost to Lindsey Graham but expanded Democrats’ vision of what’s possible in the Deep South.

by Adam Harris via The Atlantic on November 4, 2020

‘America Is a Republic, Not a Democracy’ Is a Dangerous—And Wrong—Argument

Enabling sustained minority rule at the national level is not a feature of our constitutional design, but a perversion of it.

by George Thomas via The Atlantic on November 2, 2020

Charlotte's Monument to a Jewish Confederate Was Hated Even Before It Was Built

For more than seven decades, the North Carolina memorial has courted controversy in unexpected forms.

by Andrea Cooper via Smithsonian on September 23, 2020

Joseph McCarthy and the Force of Political Falsehoods

McCarthy never sent a single “subversive” to jail, but, decades later, the spirit of his conspiracy-mongering endures.

by Louis Menand via The New Yorker on July 27, 2020

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