Person

Robert S. Levine

Bylines

Why Donald Trump Wants to Erase John Brown’s Fiery Abolitionist Legacy (and Why He Will Fail)

Reflections on Harper's Ferry amid a government shutdown.

by Robert S. Levine via Literary Hub on October 10, 2025
Frederick Douglass and the Trouble with Critical Race Theory

A favorite icon of critical race theory proponents doesn’t say what they want him to say.

by Robert S. Levine via Los Angeles Review of Books on August 2, 2021

The Failed Promise: Reconstruction, Frederick Douglass, and the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

Robert S. Levine

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‘This Little Boy would persist in handling Books Above His Capacity—and this was the Disastrous Result’; cartoon of Andrew Johnson by Thomas Nast, 1868

He Was No Moses

While he opposed slavery and southern secession early in his career, as president Andrew Johnson turned out to be an unsightly bigot.

by David S. Reynolds via New York Review of Books on December 16, 2021

A cartoon by Thomas Nast, depicting Johnson as a king and the race riots that occurred at a Radical Republican convention in New Orleans.

The Mad King and the Lost Cause

Frederick Douglass and Republican legislators had high hopes for Andrew Johnson—but ended up impeaching him.

by Randall Fuller via The Wall Street Journal on August 20, 2021

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