Exhibits

Jimmy Carter speaking during his presidential campaign in 1976.
Exhibit

Legacies of Jimmy Carter

Historical reappraisals of Carter's legacies in foreign relations, the economy, the environment, and electoral politics.

Exhibit

Trumpism

A presidency often referred to as "unprecedented" has deep roots in American history.

Exhibit

Social Safety Net

How Americans through the years have approached the thorny questions of identifying who the government is obliged to help and how such assistance should be funded and distributed.

Exhibit

Voting Rights: A Retrospective

Voting, a right not initially enshrined in the Constitution, has been secured, revoked, and contested since the nation's founding era.

Know-Nothing flag
Exhibit

The Many Faces of Nativism

As this exhibit shows, anti-immigrant sentiment has been a throughline of American history.

Exhibit

A Big Tent

Exploring the history of the Democratic Party, from its earliest days through the New Deal, the Long Sixties, and the post-Cold War era.

Declaration of Independence (1819), by John Trumbull
Exhibit

Declaring Independence

A collection of resources about the meanings of the 1776 document in its own time – and in ours.

Exhibit

President Precedents

How Americans understand the powers of the office and the legacies of past leaders.

Exhibit

“All Persons Born or Naturalized in the United States...”

A collection of resources exploring the evolving meanings of American citizenship and how they have been applied -- or denied -- to different groups of Americans.

Exhibit

American Corruption

The constant tug of war between those who try to bend government for their own gain and those who try to root out corruption and reform the system.

Voter with mask
Exhibit

Election of 2020

A look back at what historians have had to say about this epic contest over the nation's future.

Sam Francis.

The Sam Francis I Knew

The late conservative thinker, who died 20 years ago Saturday, has transcended the pariah status imposed on him during his life.
A magnifying glass and Francis Fukuyama's book "The End of History and the Last Man."

Francis Fukuyama Was Right About Liberal Democracy

For all of its faults and weaknesses, no serious competitor has emerged to capture people’s imagination or seriously challenge it.

George Washington Cut Six Sentences From His Farewell Address. They’re Haunting Me Now.

“The conflicts of popular factions are the chief, if not the only inlets, of usurpation and Tyranny,” the first president wrote.
Border Patrol agents stand watch along a barrier.

Mass Deportations Are an American Tradition

Past presidents showed that removing millions of illegal aliens is achievable.
Silhouettes of Energy Secretary Chris Wright, President Donald Trump, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in the Oval Office in the dark.

The Making of Emergencies

For centuries, theorists of liberal governance have worried about how emergencies can unfetter executive power. Trump has given those fears new urgency.
Document stamped "classified."

Trump Breaks Washington’s Secrecy Addiction

The president is right to release the Kennedy files.
Charles J. Guiteau.

How Civil Service Protections Emerged After James Garfield’s Assassination

Reformers in the Republican Party had been calling for a professional, merit-based civil service since shortly after the Civil War.
Purse in the style of the American flag.

The Power of the Purse

The first time a president withheld funds for something approved by Congress, it led to the Impoundment Control Act. We’ll soon find out if that law has teeth.
Martin Van Buren

The Prudence and Principles of Martin Van Buren

The eighth president defined the future of politics.
Richard Nixon giving a press conference.
partner

The Playbook for Stopping Trump From Shuttering Agencies

Presidents can't shutter an agency Congress created by statute. Only Congress has this power.

Presidents May Not Unilaterally Dismantle Government Agencies

That’s not how separation of powers works under the U.S. Constitution.
Supreme Court sign proclaims "equal justice under law."

What Happens If Trump Defies the Courts

Do judges have the power to enforce their rulings if the executive branch refuses to comply?
Gerald Ford signs Richard Nixon's pardon, superimposed over a smiling Nixon.

Blame Gerald Ford for Trump’s Unaccountability

In a new book, Jeffrey Toobin makes a convincing case that Ford’s pardon of President Nixon set the stage for unchecked presidential power.
Photograph of Benito Mussolini

Gold and Brown

Libertarianism, fascism, and democracy.

Forget Lincoln or Reagan—Trump's Political Idol is a Mobbed-Up Brooklyn Boss

Donald Trump’s model of political leadership? The cigar-chomping, baseball-bat swinging Meade Esposito.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

History Warns Us About Cabinet Members Like RFK Jr.

If RFK is confirmed, he is likely to fail for reasons similar to those for past political choices for the cabinet.
A propaganda poster of an American flag on fire and white American citizens struggling against Communist officials, with the caption: "Is this tomorrow? America under Communism!"

What Happened the Last Time a President Purged the Bureaucracy

The impact can linger not just for years but decades.
Print depicting a teacher and students at a freedmen's school in Vicksburg.

Why America’s First Department of Education Didn’t Last

Created in 1867, the short-lived office was mired in the ongoing American strife after the Civil War.
Herbert O. Yardley and diplomatic codes from the Black Chamber.

The Spy Who Exposed the Secrets of the Black Chamber

In 1931, Herbert O. Yardley published a tell-all book about his experiences leading a covert government agency called the Cipher Bureau.

Edward C. Banfield and What Conservatism Used to Mean

Hard thinking on difficult and uncomfortable questions about how to keep everything from falling apart.

The Historical Roots of Donald Trump’s Aggressive Nationalism

What the President’s confrontations with Panama, Greenland, Canada, and Colombia suggest about his expansionist vision.
William McKinley making a campaign speech in 1896.

Why Trump Admires President McKinley, the Original ‘Tariff Man’

President Donald Trump says McKinley made the United States prosperous through tariffs. Historians say that’s an incomplete understanding of the 25th president.
A crib drawn with Stars and Stripes symbolism.

Birthright Citizenship Is a Sacred Guarantee

The attack on it is a violation of the nation’s post–Civil War rebirth.
Ben Davis Jr. leaving courthouse, surrounded by crowd carrying signs bearing various slogans.

In 1930s NYC, Proportional Representation Boosted the Left

NYC history suggests that the Left might profitably revive proportional representation as a tool to build its electoral strength.
President Trump at desk in Oval Office signing executive orders.

President Trump Promises to Make Government Efficient

He’ll run into the same roadblocks as Presidents Taft, Roosevelt, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Carter, Reagan, Clinton and Bush, among others.
John Tower; Pete Hegseth.

In 1989, Senators Faced a Pete Hegseth Situation Very Differently

I covered the 1989 fight over George H.W. Bush's secretary of defense nominee. It feels awfully familiar.
Frances Perkins

How the First ‘Madam Secretary’ Fought to Save Jewish Refugees Fleeing From Nazi Germany

Frances Perkins’ challenged the United States’ restrictive immigration policies as FDR’s Secretary of Labor.
Brawny arm tattooed with Capitol building and fighter jets.

The Return of American Exuberance

Trump's foreign policy is not as unprecedented as it seems.
Groyper figurehead Nick Fuentes speaks at a "Stop the Steal" rally in Georgia in 2020.

The Groypers’ Battle Within the GOP

The “Groypers,” the furthest-right fringe of Trump’s coalition, want the party to adopt an overtly white nationalist agenda.
Collage of the American flag and the preamble to the Constitution.

The Historical Challenge to Originalism

Jonathan Gienapp's attack on originalism deserves a serious response.