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The New Old Democrats

It’s not the 1990s anymore. People want the government to help solve big problems. Here’s how the Democrats must respond.
by Jake Sullivan via Democracy Journal on June 20, 2018
An integrated classroom in Anacostia High School, Washington, D.C. in 1957.

Common Core Is a Menace to Pluralism and Democracy

But can locally empowered communities really fix our schools' problems?
by Johann N. Neem via The American Conservative on June 19, 2018

The Court’s Supreme Injustice

How John Marshall, Joseph Story, and Roger Taney strengthened the institution of slavery and embedded in the law a systemic hostility to fundamental freedom and basic justice.
by Allen Mendenhall via Los Angeles Review of Books on May 24, 2018
Science for the People at 2017’s March for Science.

Why a Radical 1970s Science Group Is More Relevant Than Ever

A second life for an organization of scientists who questioned how their work was being used.
by Sarah Laskow via Atlas Obscura on January 22, 2018

When We Repealed Daylight Saving Time

Who sets the time? After the first repeal of Daylight Saving Time in 1919, the question only became harder to answer.
by Kate Wersan via Edge Effects on November 2, 2017
Allegorical lithograph entitled "Reconstruction," by J. L. Giles in 1867.
partner

Why the Second American Revolution Deserves as Much Attention as the First

The first revolution articulated American ideals. The second enacted them.
by Gregory P. Downs via Made By History on July 19, 2017
partner

Liberals, Don’t Abandon the Federal Government

Doing so might kill the next big liberal idea.
by Bruce J. Schulman via Made By History on June 29, 2017
Lincoln Memorial.

The Civil War Almost Didn't End Slavery

On the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the 13th Amendment, we should reflect on the arduous battle to rid the nation once and for all of the ‘peculiar institution.’
by Kevin M. Levin via The Daily Beast on June 26, 2017

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.
by Mike Lee via Politico Magazine on May 30, 2017
Andrew Jackson, standing

Andy Jackson's Populism

It started with a hatred of crony capitalism.
by Robert W. Merry via The American Conservative on May 3, 2017

What the Fugitive Slave Act Teaches Us About How States Can Resist Oppressive Federal Power

The actions of attorneys general in California and other states have their antecedents in the fight against that draconian law.
by Eric Foner via The Nation on February 8, 2017

Not Our Independence Day

The Founding Fathers were more interested in limiting democracy than securing and expanding it.
by William Hogeland, Jonah Walters via Jacobin on July 4, 2016

An Enemy Until You Need a Friend

The role of "big government" in American history.
by Steven Conn via Origins on November 1, 2014
Vintage advertisment for Indian Land on sale, by the U.S. Department of the Interior

Universalizing Settler Liberty

America is best understood not as the first post-colonial republic, but as an expansionist nation built on slavery and native expropriation.
by Aziz Rana, Nikhil Pal Singh via Jacobin on August 4, 2014
Pony Express postage stamp depicting man riding horse
partner

You've Got Mail

The rise and fall of the Post Office from Tocqueville to Fred Rogers.
via BackStory on December 7, 2012
Lithograph of James Madison from Portrait and Biographical Album of Washtenaw County, Michigan, 1891, Wikimedia.

The Founders’ Muddled Legacy on the Right to Bear Arms Is Killing Us

A case of 18th-century politicking has stymied our ability to deal with a 21st-century crisis.
by William Hogeland via AlterNet on August 14, 2012
Donald Trump holding up a fist.

The Man Madison Warned Us Against

He authored the Constitution to forestall the rise of a despotic president. We’ll soon see if those safeguards suffice.
by Harold Meyerson via The American Prospect on February 17, 2025
Two ionic columns winding around each other

How Progressives Broke the Government

Democrats’ cultural aversion to power has cleaved an opening for Trump.
by Marc J. Dunkelman via The Atlantic on February 16, 2025
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.
by Jennifer Selin via The Conversation on January 24, 2025
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.
by John O. McGinnis, Aaron N. Coleman, Mike Rappaport via Law & Liberty on January 16, 2025
State flags in front of a federal building.

Does America Still Do Federalism?

Michael Boskin’s volume gives a grim account of the state of federalism today.
by Tony Woodlief via Law & Liberty on January 13, 2025
Harris carved in stone next to Mount Rushmore.

Kamala Harris Must Grapple with America’s Founding Fathers

To achieve a new political settlement, she has to resolve a tension dating from the Revolution.
by Justin H. Vassallo via New Statesman on October 12, 2024
Image of a man distributing newspapers at a post office.

The Post Office and Privacy

We can thank the postal service for establishing the foundations of the American tradition of communications confidentiality.
by Matthew Wills, Anuj Desai via JSTOR Daily on May 19, 2024
Ordinance from the 1866 Texas Constitution, renouncing Texas's claim to secession and declaring future attempts null and void.

Secession on the Ballot This Week ... Almost

A measure almost made the Republican Party’s 2024 Texas primary ballot to measure whether party members would support secession from the United States.
by Neil P. Chatelain via Emerging Civil War on March 4, 2024
Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas and typed footnote

Clarence Thomas Went After My Work. His Criticisms Reveal a Disturbing Fact About Originalism.

If judges are going to use history as their guide, they should probably try to get the history right.
by Gregory Ablavsky via Slate on June 20, 2023
Father Charles Coughlin delivers a radio speech (Fotosearch/Getty Images).

Ultra Violence

Rachel Maddow’s podcast tells of American Nazis in the 1940s. But the era’s real and lasting authoritarian danger came from the growth of a national security state.
by Nelson Lichtenstein via Dissent on May 23, 2023
Framed photograph of an African-American soldier in Union uniform with wife and two daughters, circa 1863–1865.

Means-Testing Is the Foe of Freedom

After Emancipation, Black people fought for public benefits like pensions that would make their newly won citizenship meaningful.
by Matthew E. Stanley via Jacobin on April 17, 2023
Sketch of a gathering of African Americans gathering in a meetinghouse.

“Nativity Gives Citizenship”: Teaching Antislavery Constitutionalism Through Black Conventions

The demand of antislavery activists for accused fugitives to be guaranteed a jury trial was an implicit recognition of Black citizenship.
by Erik J. Chaput via Commonplace on March 7, 2023
Texas investigators and medical examiners stand on top of the ruins of the Mount Carmel compound.

How the Right Got Waco Wrong

Militia groups have long used Waco as a rallying cry. But it was never the example of whiteness under siege that they invoke.
by Paul M. Renfro via The New Republic on January 31, 2023
Illustration depicting workmen and firemen dragging a fireman and engineer from a Baltimore freight train during the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad strike.

The Railway Labor Act Allowed Congress to Break the Rail Strike. We Should Get Rid of It.

Congress was able to break the rail strike last week because of a century-old law designed to weaken the disruptive power of unions.
by Nelson Lichtenstein, Andrew Yamakawa Elrod via Jacobin on December 7, 2022
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