A monkey listening to a radio with headphones.

The Scopes Trial and the Two Visions of US Democracy

A new history revisits “the Trial of the Century” and its legacy in contemporary politics.
Biden's hand waving goodbye as he gets into a car.

The Democrats’ Crisis Isn’t Over

Biden’s withdrawal won’t solve all of Democrats’ problems — but it gives them a chance.
Big Bill Haywood, Adolph Lessing, and Carlo Tresca, Paterson, New Jersey, 1913.

The Wobblies and the Dream of One Big Union

A new history examines the lost promise and fierce persecution of the IWW.
Eugene Debs speaking to a crowd.

A Brief History of American Socialism

A look at socialism’s far-reaching influence on American thought.
J. Edgar Hoover collage.

J. Edgar Hoover’s Long Shadow

The FBI’s first director built the agency around some of his own worst instincts.
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?
Bill Clinton speaking to a crowd.

How the Democrats Ditched Economic Populism for Neoliberalism

On the pro-business transformation of the Democratic Party.
Close up illustration of Frederick Douglass

An American Conception of Justice

Historians have demonstrated how central racism has been to the formation of the U.S. But many of those same ideas have also been vital to combating white supremacy.
Young Lords Party demonstration

The Revolution That Wasn’t

Do we give the activist groups of the 1960s more credit than they deserve?
Chemical plant worker

Where Would We Be Without the New Deal?

A new history charts the forgotten ways the social politics of the Roosevelt years transformed the United States.
John F. Kennedy at his graduation from Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1940

Ending the Kennedy Romance

The first volume of Frederik Logevall’s biography of JFK reveals the scope of his ambition and the weakness of his political commitments.

This Is Who We Are

The rioters at the Capitol are part of an unbroken American tradition. Sweet talk about our “better angels” did not defeat them before and will not now.
People in formal wear sitting in chairs, listening to a person behind a desk

Will We Ever Get Rid of the Electoral College?

The system that is nobody’s first choice.

Eric Foner’s Story of American Freedom

Eric Foner has helped us better understand the ambiguous consequences of what were almost always only partial victories.

The Southern Paradox: The Democratic Party Below the Mason-Dixon Line

How the region switched from being the stronghold of one party to the base of its adversary.

The Dual Defeat

Hubert Humphrey and the unmaking of Cold War liberalism.

The President Without a Party

The trials of Jimmy Carter.

Are the Parties Dying?

A conversation on party politics and the durability of our current political system.

The Two Andrew Jacksons

Jacksonian democracy may have been liberating for some, but it was repressive for many others.

No Matter What He Does, History Says Trump Will Never be Popular

Presidents who win the electoral college but lose the popular vote never really recover.

Five Myths About World War I

The United States wasn't filled with isolationists, and it wasn't exactly neutral before 1917.
Woody Guthrie.

This Land Is Our Land

The Popular Front and American culture.
Cover of Zinn's "A People's History of the United States."

Howard Zinn's History Lessons

"A People’s History" is bad history, albeit gilded with virtuous intentions.