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.

Donald Trump and the 'Paranoid Style' in American (Intellectual) Politics

Revisiting Holfstadter's "paranoid style" in the era of Trump.

The Confederate Flag Largely Disappeared after the Civil War

The fight against civil rights brought it back.

Confederate History is American History

New Orleans shouldn't have removed its Robert E. Lee statue.

‘Hey Boy, You Want To Go See A Hangin’?’: A Lynching From A White Southerner’s View

You cannot have reconciliation without empathy. And you can’t have empathy unless people know the past pain that informs our present.

The Poverty of Entrepreneurship: The Silicon Valley Theory of History

How Silicon Valley coopts history for its own autocratic ends.

Here's the Real History Behind Arizona's Confederate Monuments

It has less to do with the state's role in the Civil War, and more to do with backlash to the Civil Rights movement.

Confederate or Not, Which Monuments Should Stay or Go? We Asked, You Answered.

We asked about monuments in your home town. Here's what you said.

The Myth of the Kindly General Lee

The legend of the Confederate leader’s heroism and decency is based in the fiction of a person who never existed.

The Echoes of America's 'Faithful Slave' Trope in Lola's Story

How Alex Tizon’s essay echoes a trope with deep roots in American history

How the ‘Hamilton Effect’ Distorts the Founders

Too often, we look to history not to understand it, but to seek out confirmation for our preexisting beliefs. That’s a problem.

The Battle for Memorial Day in New Orleans

A century and a half after the Civil War, Mayor Mitch Landrieu asked his city to reexamine its past — and to wrestle with hard truths.
A worker prepares to remove a statue of Jefferson Davis.

How Robert E. Lee Got Knocked Off His Pedestal

Before New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu made his celebrated speech, a grassroots movement forced the city to take down its monuments to white supremacy.

The Conservative Revolution of 1776

The leaders of the Revolutionary War -- and their vision for the nation -- were far from revolutionary.