Power

In the early nineties, the country turned against the establishment and right-wing populists thrived. A new history reassesses their impact.

The history of American Communism shows that dogma and fervor are no substitute for popular support.

How German Enlightenment thought influenced Abraham Lincoln.

We compiled Reconstruction-era documents to identify 1,250 formerly enslaved Black Americans given land—only to have it returned to their enslavers.

In ‘When the Clock Broke,’ John Ganz revisits the era of Pat Buchanan and Ross Perot to find the roots of our populist moment.

Many recoil at the thought of stronger political parties. But revitalized parties could be exactly what our ailing democracy needs.

As Cornel West is receiving ballot access help from Republicans, 20 years ago Al Sharpton’s campaign for president was largely orchestrated by Roger Stone.

Historian Manisha Sinha argues that the Second Republic lasted decades longer than most histories state and achieved wider gains.

On (not) voting.

Yuval Levin urges us to take America’s greatest constitutional thinker, James Madison, as our lodestar.

Nathan Perl-Rosenthal’s book can guide us through turbulent conversations about revolution, social change, and the founding of America.

Why conservatives killed America’s federally funded theater.

The Insurrection Act is a nuclear bomb hidden in the United States code, giving presidents unimaginable emergency power. No President has abused it. Yet.

The rise of the right remade the GOP—and fundamentally changed how parties operated in American politics.

If it weren’t for the young urban professionals of the 1980s, we’d never have MAGA.

Eugene Debs ran for president from prison. His former bellwether county — and museum — both hold lessons for Trump’s campaign.

All that’s past isn’t necessarily present.

The legacy of the Immigration Act of 1924 and the launching of the Border Patrol, which inaugurated the most restrictive era of US immigration until our own.

A conversation with the legal scholar on why it is unusual that the Constitution is core to American national identity.

How one activist helped turn evangelical women into the backbone of right-wing conservatism.

For generations of American radicals, the path to liberation required a new constitution, not forced removal.

In its reexamination of narratives about the expropriation of Native land, Michael Witgen’s work changes how Native people are in the arc of American history.

Alexander Hamilton’s anonymous essay challenged the voting citizens of New York to hold fast to the truth when deciding to ratify (or not) the US Constitution.

The 1924 Indian Citizenship Act sought to assimilate Native people into white society. But the legislation, signed by President Calvin Coolidge, fell short.

The legacy of the Immigration Act of 1924 and the launching of the Border Patrol, which inaugurated the most restrictive era of US immigration until our own.

Waiting for the start of the American Civil War in Canada and the Caribbean.

A new book explores the Communist Party's western base and its alliance with the labor movement.

It's easy to get this one wrong.

Smith understood why so many white Americans, especially white Southerners, struggled to accept that their society was not so far removed from Hitler’s Germany.

On the fragile facade of republicanism in 19th century America.