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The Southern Paradox: The Democratic Party Below the Mason-Dixon Line

How the region switched from being the stronghold of one party to the base of its adversary.

Kevin Kruse vs. Dinesh D'Souza: Dixiecrat Edition

A conservative pundit questioned the prevalence of Dixiecrats switching to the GOP. Historian Kevin Kruse accepted the challenge.
Book cover of "Let the Glory Out: My South and its Politics" by Al Gore

The Chaotic Politics of the South

For three quarters of a century the South was the geographic base of Democratic Presidential hopes.
Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Lyndon B. Johnson.
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The Border Presidents and Civil Rights

Three US presidents from the South’s borders—Truman, Eisenhower, and Johnson—worked against Southern politicians to support civil and voting rights.
Woodrow Wilson.

Woodrow Wilson Should Stay Canceled

The 28th President of the United States enabled segregation and vile treatment of Black federal workers. He doesn’t deserve an image rehabilitation.
Gen. Robt. E. Lee, 1886.

After the Civil War, Robert E. Lee Couldn't Run for President, but Trump Can?

Despite Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, a Colorado state judge stretches the word “officer,” permitting him to remain on the state’s ballot.
Tenant farmers picking cotton in Mississippi circa 1890.

The Black Populist Movement Has Been Snuffed Out of the History Books

Often forgotten today, the black populists and their acts of cross-racial solidarity terrified the planter class, who responded with violence and Jim Crow laws.
Graph of tax rates on top marginal earned income vs. long term capital gains, 1918-2020.

Why Is Wealth White?

In the 20th century, a moral economy of “whites-only” wealth animated federal policies and programs that created the propertied white middle class.
Print shows Rebel troops killing the citizens of Lawrence, Kansas, and setting fire to the buildings.

Where Will This Political Violence Lead? Look to the 1850s.

In the mid-19th century, a pro-slavery minority used violence to stifle a growing anti-slavery majority, spurring their opposition to respond in kind.
A hand demonstrates a push lever system in voting booth, and students wait in line to vote in a mock election held at Morgan State University in Baltimore

The Forgotten First Voting Rights Act

How the defeat of the 1890 Lodge bill presaged today’s age of ballot-driven backlash.
Black and white portrait of Joseph Lane in his suit.

What if Joseph Lane of Oregon had become President in 1861?

How would the presidency have looked under Joseph Lane, a Democrat, as opposed to Abraham Lincoln?
Blue and red donkey logo of the Democratic Party.

Hope in the Desert: Democratic Party Blues

In 'What It Took to Win,' Michael Kazin traces the history over the past two centuries of what he calls ‘the oldest mass party in the world’.
Four members of House committee on Jan. 6. U.S. Capitol Riot, sitting in a hearing.
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What History Says About The Jan. 6 Committee Investigation

The importance of an unambiguous report that cannot be weaponized by Trump supporters.
Protest sign reading "We never left Jim Crow."

Voter Fraud Propagandists Are Recycling Jim Crow Rhetoric

The conservative plot to suppress the Black vote has relied on racist caricatures, then and now.

Joe Biden Is Not Jimmy Carter, and This Is Not the 1970s

The right’s facile comparisons of the two presidents miss the vastly different circumstances facing Biden and distort Carter’s record.
Book cover of "When Good Government Meant Big Government," with text and red and blue stripes in the style of campaign signs.

When Good Government Meant Big Government

An interview with Jesse Tarbert about the history of the American state, “big government,” and the legacy of government reform efforts.
Map of the Appalachian mountain range

The Making of Appalachian Mississippi

“Mississippi’s white Appalachians may have owned the earth, but they could never own the past.”
Senator Joe Manchin III walks through the U.S. Capitol.
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For 100 Years, the Filibuster Has Been Used to Deny Black Rights

The most significant impact of the Senate’s super majority rules.
A Japanese mother and daughter, farmworkers in California, photographed in 1937 by Dorothea Lange

Whitewashing the Great Depression

How the preeminent photographic record of the period excluded people of color from the nation’s self-image.
Photo of people protesting and demanding all votes are counted the day after Election Day at McPherson Square, near the White House.
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President Trump’s False Claims About Election Fraud Are Dangerous

Trump’s campaign to delegitimize the vote has a familiar ring. It evokes an egregious example of election fraud in the 1890s.
Barry Goldwater speaking at a 1964 rally, placing his finger over his lips.

The Western Origins of the “Southern Strategy”

The untold story of the ideological realignment that upended the nation.

The Real Story Behind “Because of Sex”

One of the most powerful phrases in the Civil Rights Act is often viewed as a malicious joke that backfired. But its entrance into law was far more savvy.

Is Anti-Monopolism Enough?

A new book argues that US history has been a struggle between monopoly and democracy, but fails to address class and labor when decoding inequality.
View over Baltimore.
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How Politicians Use Fear of Cities Like Baltimore to Stoke White Resentment

President Trump is building on a tactic pioneered by segregationists.

What Does Tax Policy Have to Do with the Civil Rights Movement?

How congressional conservatives undermined the civil rights movement through the Tax Reform Act of 1969.

Here’s How Deep Biden’s Busing Problem Runs

And why the Democrats can’t use it against him.

Racists in Congress Fought Statehood For Hawaii, But Lost That Battle 60 Years Ago

It took more than five decades for advocates of statehood to vanquish white supremacists in Washington.

Terrorized African-Americans Found Their Champion in Civil War Hero Robert Smalls

The congressman and former slave claimed whites had killed 53,000 African-Americans. Few took him seriously—until now.

Here's Why Republicans' Disturbing Romance With the Racist Confederacy Is so Troubling

The road to the violence around statues is paved with hate, lies, and political gamesmanship.
Printing food stamps.
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Why American Policy is Leaving Millions Hungry

Instead of trying to eliminate hunger, we continue to talk about personal responsibility.

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