Donald Trump

James Shapiro’s recent book looks at why Shakespeare has been a mainstay of the cultural and political conflicts of the country since its founding.

Biden’s vision may conflict with promoting purported American values such as democracy and human rights.

Perpetual outsiders, Mormons spent 200 years assimilating to a certain national ideal—only to find their country in an identity crisis.

How a Gilded Age best seller shaped American race discourse.

With chatter about Texas leaving the union on the rise, two new books remind us what it was like the last time we tried to go it alone.

A new history shows how the glut of US military bases abroad has led to a constant state of military conflict.

And history says they have a reason to be.

The chaotic quest to mythologize America’s past.

Trump’s campaign to delegitimize the vote has a familiar ring. It evokes an egregious example of election fraud in the 1890s.

The history of tuning in to televised election returns.

President Trump has called on supporters, including law enforcement officers, to monitor election sites. Voter intimidation tactics have a long history.

The collapse of the Republican Party.

The modern conception of freedom emerged as an antidemocratic reaction by elites who wanted to curtail state power.

Democrats and Republicans are increasingly united in an anti-China front. But their approaches to U.S. foreign policy diverge.

A Trump-Biden transition is sure to be scary. But it’d be hard to beat Buchanan-Lincoln.

A political history of the present moment.

The only coup in American history came after scare-mongering that wouldn't sound out of place in 2020.

Climate change and the colonial legacy of fire suppression.

The hope for historical vindication is loud now but not new.

Rick Perlstein's "Reaganland" charts the conservative counter-revolution that moved the US to the right.