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Nikki Haley, 2023.

Nikki Haley's Slavery Omission Typifies the GOP's Tragic Pact with White Supremacy

How the Southern Strategy of the late 20th century gave rise to the modern GOP.
Political analyst Kevin P. Phillips in September 1970.

The GOP’s ‘Southern Strategy’ Mastermind Just Died. Here’s His Legacy.

Kevin Phillips help set the Republican Party on the path that led it to Trump.
Headshot of Angie Maxwell.

Political Scientist Angie Maxwell on Countering the 'Long Southern Strategy'

For decades, the Republican Party has used what's known as "the Southern Strategy" to win white support in the region.
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.

How the Republican Majority Emerged

Fifty years after the Republican Party hit upon a winning formula, President Trump is putting it at risk.
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What We Get Wrong About the Southern Strategy

It took much longer — and went much further — than we think.

Lee Atwater’s Infamous 1981 Interview on the Southern Strategy

The 42 minute recording, acquired by James Carter IV, confirms Atwater’s incendiary remarks and places them in context.
Two drawn caricatures of Ronald Reagan's face.

I’m a Historian of the ’80s. I Cannot Tell You How Bizarre the New Ronald Reagan Movie Is.

There’s hagiography, then there’s...whatever this is.
Crowd of Black and White workers walking.

Affirmative Action Never Had a Chance

The conservative backlash to the civil-rights era began immediately — and now it’s nearly complete.
A GOP Elephant locked up in a padded cell.

It Didn’t Start with Trump: The Decades-Long Saga of How the GOP Went Crazy

The modern Republican Party has always exploited and encouraged extremism.

The Republican Choice

How a party spent decades making itself white.
Crowd of people at the counting of Electoral College votes in the U.S. Congress.

The Electoral College’s Racist Origins

More than two centuries after it was designed to empower southern white voters, the system continues to do just that.

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.

Welcome To Jim Crow 2.0

Georgia GOP candidate Brian Kemp is using a tried-and-tested formula designed to erode and corrode American democracy.

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.

Charlottesville and the Trouble with Civil War Hypotheticals

Only by the most specific, immediate definition can we consider the Confederacy to have lost the Civil War.

The Architect of the Radical Right

How the Nobel Prize–winning economist James M. Buchanan shaped today’s antigovernment politics.

What Was the Confederate Flag Doing in Cuba, Vietnam, and Iraq?

The Confederate flag’s military tenure continued long after the Civil War ended.

How America Invented the Red State

According to conventional wisdom, the last quarter century of elections has proved that most of the country leans conservative. It all started with a map.
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Electing the President, 1840-2020

Most election maps emphasize the candidates and parties who won the Electoral College. This project shifts the focus to voters, revealing a more nuanced story.
A racist political cartoon depicting Uncle Sam as an educator teaching racialized colonial subjects in areas recently conquered by the U.S. during the War of 1898, the year of the white supremacist coup and massacre in Wilmington, N.C. and the mass disenfranchisement of Black Americans by the Supreme Court.

Heather Cox Richardson Shows the Importance of Holding Right-Wing Criminals and Frauds Accountable

Richardson’s work is as much about the contradictions of our shared past as it is an urgent call to action around the current authoritarian crisis.
Collage of George Romney giving a speech, the Baileys, their house, and riot police.

In 1967, a Black Man and a White Woman Bought a Home. American Politics Would Never Be the Same.

What happened to the Bailey family in the Detroit suburb of Warren became a flashpoint in the national battle over integration.
A Ku Klux Klan march, late 1800s to early 1900s.

Tracing the Legacy of Southern White Migration

Unlike the Southern whites who moved en masse during the 20th century, these early migrants often had direct, personal ties to the institution of slavery.
A group of white veteran students in 1945, beneficiaries of the GI Bill.

The Blindness of Colorblindness

Revisiting "When Affirmative Action Was White," nearly two decades on.
Billy Graham leading a prayer at the Republican National Convention, Miami, Florida, August 1968; Richard Nixon is at right.

Victimhood and Vengeance

The contemporary rise of Christian nationalism in the US is a reactionary response to the country’s liberalization over the past half-century.
Timeline of the history of American political parties to 1880, depicting intertwined streams of Democrats, Whigs, and Republicans.
original

What is Political Realignment?

An annotated collection of resources from the Bunk archive that help explain the shifting sands of American politics.
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’.
Drawings of protest sign reading "Workers of the world unite" with an asterisk, and another smaller one reading "Not You."

Redefining the Working Class

The diminished status of the non-white working class is not a matter of accident, but of design.
Cecil B. Moore, president of the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP, speaks to people gathered at the Reyburn Plaza construction site for the Municipal Services building.

Northern Civil Rights and Republican Affirmative Action

One focus of the 1960s struggle for civil rights in the North were the construction industries of Philadelphia, New York and Cleveland.
Anto-CRT protestors at the Pennsylvania state Capitol.

Teaching (amid a) White Backlash

A brief scholarly overview to understand the contours of white backlashes, their historical impact, and the ways they shape the world we inherit.

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