Why I Changed My Mind About Confederate Monuments

Empty pedestals can offer the same lessons about racism and war that the statues do.

Dismantled But Not Destroyed

One alternative to tearing down Confederate monuments: creatively repurposing them.

Why Those Confederate Soldier Statues Look a Lot Like Their Union Counterparts

Many monuments in the South were made in the North — by the same companies, and with the same molds, as those sold to Northern towns.

"I've Studied The History Of Confederate Memorials. Here's What To Do About Them."

Many were funded privately. The public now deserves a say in their fate.

The Pernicious Myth of the ‘Loyal Slave’ Lives on in Confederate Memorials

Statues don’t need to venerate military leaders of the Civil War to promulgate false narratives.

Is it Still Okay to Venerate George Washington and Thomas Jefferson?

The president's stand on the Confederate hero represents the kind of moral relativism that conservatives usually decry.

Regime Change in Charlottesville

If you understand why that Civil War statue really went up, the debate over removing it looks a lot different.

Why Boston Has A Confederate Monument — And Why You Can't See It Right Now

The state's only Confederate memorial, a stone on Georges Island, has been boarded up since June while the state ponders its fate.
Street signs on the corner of Rosa L. Parks Avenue and North Jeff Davis Avenue.

Atlas of Southern Memory

An interactive map of public commemoration of the Civil War and the civil rights movement in the South.

Racism, Medievalism, and the White Supremacists of Charlottesville

The weekend's demonstrators were the latest in a long line of American racists to ally themselves with an imagined Middle Ages.

A Confederate Statue Is Gone, But the Fight Remains in Durham

The city isn't rushing to put it back up.

Some Thoughts on Public Memory

The only logic to honoring Lee is to honor treason and treason in the worst possible cause.
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What Would Jefferson Say About White Supremacists Descending Upon his University?

Jefferson had a complicated relationship with white supremacy.

The Ideological Slipperiness of the Kennedy Legacy

Politicians from both sides of the aisle have tried to stake a claim to the power of the Kennedy legend. What is it about Camelot?
Lizzie Borden.

Why We’re So Obsessed With Lizzie Borden’s 40 Whacks

Lizzie Borden’s father and stepmother were brutally murdered, possibly by Lizzie herself, in August 1892. Why are we still dissecting the crime?

We Don’t Need a TV Show About the Confederacy Winning. In Many Ways, it Did.

HBO's “Confederate” assumes America is much further from its slaveholding past than it really is.

The South Rises Yet Again, This Time on HBO

In a world where Confederate flags continue to fly, it is hard not to cry “enough” at this continued emphasis on all-things-Confederate.
Robert E. Lee Statue in Charlottesville.
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Why We Need Confederate Monuments

They force us to remember the worst parts of our history.

The Revival of John Quincy Adams

The sixth president, long derided as a hapless elitist, is suddenly relevant again 250 years after his birth.
Clarence Darrow, left, with William Jennings Bryan, right, at the Scopes Trial.

Now More Than Ever, We Need Less History

The “now more than ever” tendency is everywhere.

History Writ Aright

What would it take for people "to know their history"? Pay attention to the silences.
Fourth of July fireworks over the Brooklyn Bridge.
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Partisans Often Try To Claim July 4 As Their Own. It Usually Backfires.

Independence Day has always been a political battlefield.

Supporters of Confederate Symbols Have Less Knowledge of Civil War History

This negates a commonly used defense that Confederate symbols represent ‘heritage not hate’.

How Charleston Celebrated Its Last July 4 Before the Civil War

As the South Carolina city prepared to break from the Union, its people swung between nostalgia and rebellion.

The American Revolution Revisited

A nation divided, even at birth.
Historian Timothy Naftali being interviewed by Fareed Zakaria on television.

Why (Some) Historians Should Be Pundits

The question isn’t whether they have anything of value to offer. It’s whether they can avoid partisan vituperation along the way.

Bill O’Reilly Is America’s Best-Selling Historian

And other problems we need to solve before we can get out of this mess.

Why Has America Named So Many Places After a French Nobleman?

The Marquis de Lafayette's name graces more city parks and streets than perhaps any other foreigner

The Necessity of Juneteenth

The most famous Emancipation holiday is more necessary now than it has ever been.

American Slavery: Separating Fact From Myth

Before we can face slavery, learn about it and acknowledge its significance to American history, we must dispel the myths surrounding it.