Abraham Lincoln

During Reconstruction, true citizenship finally seemed in reach for black Americans. Then their dreams were dismantled.

Slavery and the legacy of white supremacy.

To alleviate voters' fears during the Civil War, Northern governors refused to open their states to formerly enslaved refugees.

Abolishing slavery wasn’t enough. Someone had to actually free the enslaved people of the American south.

Our secular government is all tangled up with God. How did we get here?

The horrors of the fugitive slave laws, the costs of union, and the value of comity.

Thanksgiving is a holiday about food – but it is more specifically a holiday about food’s absence.

Abortion and America’s new sectional divide.

In 1874, Democrats picked up an astounding 94 seats in the 293-seat House.

A review of David Blight's new biography of Frederick Douglass.

I was raised to venerate Lee the principled patriot—but I want no association with Lee the defender of slavery.

Predictions of society coming undone reflect deep anxieties over the divisions roiling the country, but these professed fears about our future actually provide hope.

The way to address politicization in the courts is not de-politicization but counter-politicization.

When it comes to partisan Supreme Court nominations, history repeats itself.

What happens when the Patent Office doesn't recognize the inventor as a person at all?

Whether it ran smoothly or ground to a halt, the mail offered daily reminders that the hand of war touched every aspect of life.

Before Stowe's famous novel, a formerly enslaved African-American living in Canada wrote a memoir detailing his experience.

What began as an effort to define and punish trading with the enemy has transformed into economic warfare.

The problems of presidential gigantism can’t be solved by finding the right giant—the office is dying from its own growth.

The lesser-known beginning of the desegregation of public transportation.