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History Frowns on Partisan Gerrymandering

On the eve of a major redistricting case at the Supreme Court, a look back at what the nation's founders would have thought.

When a New York Baron Became President

In the case of Chester Arthur, the story is one of surprising redemption.

Where Did the Term 'Gerrymander' Come From?

Elbridge Gerry was a powerful voice in the founding of the nation, but today he's best known for the political practice with an amphibious origin.
Mitch McConnell
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Partisanship is an American Tradition — And Good for Democracy

Bipartisanship is the exception, not the rule.

The Democrats Are Eisenhower Republicans

For decades, Democrats have positioned themselves as fiscally responsible while Republicans happily hand tax cuts to the rich.

Why Did U.S. Postmasters Once Have So Much Political Cachet?

Bureaucracy used to work through patronage, an informal system of job-distribution by the party in power. Why did it change?

Trying to Remember J.F.K.

On the centenary of his birth, seeking the man behind the myth.

The Immigration-Obsessed, Polarized, Garbage-Fire Election of 1800

A madman versus a crook? Unexpected twists? Fake news? Welcome to the election of 1800.
A political cartoon showing two figures leading donkeys in opposite directions. The donkeys are depicted with the faces of Zachary Taylor and Henry Clay.

Prospects for Partisan Realignment: Lessons from the Demise of the Whigs

What America’s last major party crack-up in the 1850s tells us about the 2010s.
Corey M. Brooks, Liberty Power: Antislavery Third Parties and the Transformation of American Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016.

#FEELTHEBIRNEY

The most important third party in the history of American politics is one you may never have heard of before.
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Upheaval at the 1860 Democratic Convention: What Happened When a Party Split

Some issues are too fundamental for a party to withstand, and the consequences can last for a generation.
Delegates on the floor at the Democratic National Convention at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, August 26, 1964.

How to Steal an Election

The crazy history of nominating Conventions.
Bank in Revere, Massachusetts.

Partisan Banking and the Emergence of Free Banking in Early 19th-Century Massachusetts

The critical role that banking played in the political struggles of early American history.

The Art of the New Deal

Despite a fractured party and health concerns, FDR capitalized on name recognition to win the 1932 presidential election.
Bill Clinton in front of a poster that reads "New Democrats".

Atari Democrats

As organized labor lost strength, the Democratic Party turned to professional-class voters to shore up its base.

Are Reagan Democrats Becoming Trump Democrats?

Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump may prove that having once been a Democrat is an asset for a Republican presidential nominee for president

The New Racism

A glimpse inside the Alabama State House suggests that the civil rights movement may have reached its end.
Political cartoon of U.S. President Martin Van Buren sitting on a fence as men on each side try to pull him toward them.
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The Spirit of Party and Faction

On factional strife in the Early Republic, and why parties themselves were universally despised.
George Washington Plunkitt

The Case for Corruption

Why Washington needs more honest graft.
This editorial cartoon from a January 1879 edition of Harper's Weekly depicting a white man misspelling words on a sign announcing Black voters must pass a literacy test, while a Black man looks on laughing.

The Racial History Of The 'Grandfather Clause'

Companies and individuals are considered grandfathered and exempt from new sets of regulations all the time. But the term and the concept dates to a darker era.
Cartoon of congressmen talking in two insular groups. Illustration by Steve Brodner

The Empty Chamber

For many reasons, senators don’t have the time, or the inclination, to get to know one another—least of all members of the other party.
The large Wide Awake parade in lower Manhattan.

“Young Men for War”: The Wide Awakes and Lincoln’s 1860 Presidential Campaign

Wearing shiny black capes and practicing infantry drills had nothing to do with preparing for civil war.
Joseph Dennie.

Was the Federalist Press Staid and Apolitical?

Quite the contrary. They used rhetoric to build a partisan community, and realized that parties needed to create and market identities, not simply agendas.

Political Construction of a Natural Disaster: The Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1853

The conversation around race after Hurricane Katrina echoed discourse from another New Orleans disaster 150 years before.

Supreme Court Cronyism

With the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, George W. Bush restarts a long and troubled tradition.
Poet-playwright and political activist Imamu Amiri Baraka recites his poem, "Its Nation Time," at the National Black Political Convention.
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The Black Political Convention

Black Journal interviews with Imamu Amiri Baraka, poet-playwright and co-chairman of the National Black Political Convention.
Portrait of Charles Sumner

First in War, First in Nepotism

In 1872, Charles Sumner decries “a president who makes his great office a plaything and perquisite.”
Man reading a newspaper

A Brief Literary History of the Newspaper Endorsement

When did endorsements become pro forma, anyway? And what do they even do?
"Vote here" sign in English and Spanish.

Chasing the “Latino Vote”

Political campaigns have often misunderstood Latino voters, oversimplifying their diversity and facing challenges in outreach and engagement.
Photo of Framer  James A. Bayard then a modern day photo of Congresswoman Liz Cheney.

How Past and Present Catch Up With Each Other

The election of 1801 offers a first-hand example of how current events can offer historians new perspectives on the past.

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