Bruce Springsteen on July 19, 1988 at his concert in East Berlin on the cycle track Weissensee.

Can the 1980s Explain 2024?

The yuppies embodied the winning side of America’s deepening economic divide. Bruce Springsteen spoke for those left behind.
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.

J.F.K.’s “Profiles in Courage” Has a Racism Problem. What Should We Do About It?

Kennedy defined courage as a willingness to take an unpopular stand in service of a larger, higher cause. But what cause?

Is Capitalism Racist?

A scholar depicts white supremacy as the economic engine of American history.

Jefferson, Adams, and the SAT’s New Adversity Factor

Discussions of admissions to élite colleges are built around the idea that somewhere around the next bend is the right way to do it.

What to Do with Monuments Whose History We’ve Forgotten

Few who are memorialized in stone could fully pass moral muster today. Is that a problem?

Hating on Herbert Hoover

Hoover was a brilliant manager, a wizard of logistics, and an effective humanitarian. Why do we remember him as a failure?

The Price of Union

The undefeatable South.
Portrait of W.E.B. Du Bois.

Who Was W.E.B. Du Bois?

A review of "Lines of Descent: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Emergence of Identity," by Kwame Anthony Appiah.
Photograph of two of the original organizers preparing for the first Earth Day (1970). At left, a woman holds up two advertisements for the event. In front, a man stares into the camera (Denis Hayes) while holding a phone.

The Fate of Earth Day

What has gone wrong with the modern environmental movement and its political organizing.