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Five generations of a family pose at the plantation where they were enslaved, soon after Union forces arrived in Beaufort, South Carolina, 1863.

More Than 100 U.S. Political Elites Have Family Links to Slavery

Among America's political elite, 5 living presidents, 2 Supreme Court justices, 11 governors, and 100 legislators have ancestors who enslaved Black people.
by Tom Lasseter, Lawrence Delevingne, Makini Brice, Donna Bryson, Nicholas P. Brown, Tom Bergin via Reuters on June 27, 2023
Ron DeSantis's head photoshopped onto the body of a revolutionary war soldier.

Ron DeSantis’s Context-Free History Book Vanished Online. We Got A Copy.

Ron DeSantis, who has attacked Florida history lessons and aims to run for president, dismisses slavery in his 2011 book as a “personal flaw” of the Founding Fathers.
by Gillian Brockell via Retropolis on May 21, 2023
Migrants in line for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, barbed wire in the foreground.
partner

Biden’s Border Policies Target Haitians. That’s No Accident.

The long history undergirding our harsh bipartisan migration policies.
by Leslie M. Alexander via Made By History on May 11, 2023
Image of an AR-15

The Gun that Divides a Nation

The AR-15 thrives in times of tension and tragedy. This is how it came to dominate the marketplace – and loom so large in the American psyche.
by Alex Horton, Josh Dawsey, Todd C. Frankel, Shawn Boburg, Ashley Park via Washington Post on March 27, 2023
A U.S. Army officer posing after a battle at the Baghdad airport, April 2003.

Blundering Into Baghdad

The right—and wrong—lessons of the Iraq War.
by Hal Brands via Foreign Affairs on February 28, 2023
Robet Kagan resting his head in his hands in a contemplative position, with a dark red background

Robert Kagan and Interventionism’s Big Reboot

He fell from favor after the disaster of the Iraq War. But he was always biding his time.
by Samuel Moyn via The New Republic on February 14, 2023
Then–Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama in Mitchell, S.D.

What Does It Take to Win?

A new history of American politics examines the past and future of political realignments.
by Kim Phillips-Fein via The Nation on January 24, 2023
Photograph of protesters and text from a 1944 edition of "Are You An American?"

The Failure of a Public Philosophy

How Americans lost faith in the possibility of self-government.
by Win McCormack via The New Republic on November 23, 2022
Pew Research chart showing rising earnings disparity between young adults with and without college degrees

Pushing Everyone Into College Was a Policy Response to Other Policy

None of it happened by mistake.
by Freddie deBoer via Freddie deBoer on November 21, 2022
Side-by-side presidential portraits of George Washington, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush

The Presidents Who Hated Their Presidential Portraits

Theodore Roosevelt said his made him look like “a mewing cat.” Lyndon Johnson called his “the ugliest thing I ever saw.” Ronald Reagan ordered a do-over.
by Ronald G. Shafer via Retropolis on September 7, 2022
A vacant home surrounded by a chain link fence is seen in Los Angeles, February 16, 2010.

Why Obama-Era Economists Are So Mad About Student Debt Relief

It exposes their failed mortgage debt relief policies after the Great Recession.
by David Dayen, Lindsay Owens via The American Prospect on August 31, 2022
The cover of the book "This Earthly Frame," depicting clouds swirling around the US Capitol dome.

The Struggle to Make the United States Secular

How progressives came to think that any recognition of Christianity by a public institution violates others’ rights.
by Johann N. Neem via Los Angeles Review of Books on July 15, 2022
Drawing of a crowd of delegates at the 1972 Democratic National Convention. (Franklin McMahon / Getty Images)

A Big Tent

The contradictory past and uncertain future of the Democratic Party.
by Nicholas Lemann via The Nation on July 11, 2022
A picture of an assault rifle on a red background.

The Rifle That Ruined America

As an NRA-approved icon and the mass shooter’s weapon of choice, the AR-15 has done untold harm.
by Ryan Busse via The Atlantic on June 15, 2022
Images of European Immigrants arriving to America on Ellis Island.

The Myth of the Rapid Mobility of European Immigrants

Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan on the data illusion of the rags-to-riches stories.
by Ran Abramitzky, Leah Platt Boustan via Literary Hub on June 1, 2022
Black and white photograph of crowd in China holding pictures of Mao Zedong in celebration.

U.S. Relations With China 1949–2022

U.S.-China relations have evolved from tense standoffs to a complex mix of intensifying diplomacy, growing international rivalry, and increasingly intertwined economies.
via Council On Foreign Relations on May 26, 2022
Picture of Donna Murch and her new book. (Photo by Don J. Usner)

The Long History of Resistance That Birthed Black Lives Matter

A conversation with historian Donna Murch about the past, present, and future of Black radical organizing.
by Elias Rodriques, Donna Murch via The Nation on May 24, 2022
A worker sits with his head in his hands on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 24, 2008, as the markets endured losses.

How The Neoliberal Order Triumphed — And Why It’s Now Crumbling

Historian Gary Gerstle lays out an era's policies and ideologies, and what undermined them.
by Mario Del Pero via Washington Post on May 6, 2022
U.S. Supreme Court building, Washington, D.C.

"A Man of His Time": From Patrick Henry to Samuel Alito in U.S. History

The struggle for progress is always two steps forward and at least one step back.
by Thomas Lecaque via Age of Revolutions on May 5, 2022
Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, and Barack Obama walking together

How to Tell the History of the Democrats

What connection does the party of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson have to the party of Barack Obama and Kamala Harris?
by Michael Kazin, Timothy Shenk via Dissent on April 25, 2022
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