political compromise — Bunk History

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Painting of Daniel Boone escorting settlers through the Cumberland Gap by George Caleb Bingham. (Washington University, St. Louis)

The Articles of Confederation and Western Expansion

In settling a rivalry between Maryland and Virginia and preventing individual states from getting into bed with France and Spain, maybe the Articles weren't a failure after all.

by Richard J. Werther via Journal of the American Revolution on June 14, 2022

Shirley Temple Black speaking at the 1969 U.N. General Assembly in New York.

Shirley Temple Black's Remarkable Second Act as a Diplomat

An unpublished memoir reveals how the world’s most famous child actress became a star of the environmental movement.

by Claudia Kalb via Smithsonian on May 23, 2022

Illustration of Ken Burns

The Unbearable Whiteness of Ken Burns

The filmmaker’s new documentary on Benjamin Franklin tells an old and misleading story.

by Timothy Messer-Kruse via The Chronicle of Higher Education on April 20, 2022

Black and white people sitting at a lunch counter.

When Rights Went Right

Is the American conception of constitutional rights too absolute?

by David Cole via New York Review of Books on March 31, 2022

A portrait of Abraham Lincoln hangs behind President Biden in the State Dining Room of the White House

Activists Have Always Been Frustrated at Allies’ Insistence on Gradual Change

Why abolitionist Lydia Maria Child raged at President Lincoln’s political calculations.

by Lydia Moland via Made By History on March 28, 2022

African American man casting a ballot following the Fifteenth Amendment.

Echoes of 1891 in 2022

Using the congressional filibuster to prevent voting rights legislation isn't new. It has roots in the 19th century.

by Daniel W. Crofts via Muster on January 25, 2022

A bronze statue of Civil War soldiers on horseback, in front of the U.S. Capitol building.

How Twitter Explains the Civil War (and Vice Versa)

The proliferation of antebellum print is analogous to our own tectonic shifts in how people communicate and what they communicate about.

by Ariel Ron via The Strong Paw Of Reason on January 6, 2022

Sign reading "One World" with a picture of Earth.

Climate Change Governance: Past, Present, and (Hopefully) Future

The 2015 Paris Agreement represented a shift in the climate regime towards "new governance," expanding the roles of nation-states and non-state actors alike.

by Jessica Green via Cambridge University Press on December 2, 2021

Protestors on a march, holding signs that read "Healthcare is a Human Right" and "Insulin or food should not be a choice: Medicare for All"

Health Care Reform’s History of Utter Failure

Repeated failures by both political parties to get a decent policy through our 18th-century constitutional structure led to the Affordable Care Act.

by Ryan Cooper via The Nation on November 28, 2021

Congresswoman going on the Senate floor in Washington D.C.

The Founders Constructed Our Government to Foster Inaction

Why Democrats have struggled to implement their agenda.

by Calvin Schermerhorn via Made By History on October 28, 2021

Illustration of armed men in a large mob surrounding Orleans Parish Prison

The First Columbus Day Was Born of Violence — And Political Calculation

President Benjamin Harrison promoted the holiday after a mob killed 11 Italian Americans and set off a diplomatic crisis.

by Ronald G. Shafer via Retropolis on October 10, 2021

Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Emperor Hirohito, September, 1945

The Japanese Surrender in 1945 is Still Poorly Understood

Did the United States have no other option but to drop atomic bombs on Japan in order to get them to surrender?

by Jeremy Kuzmarov, Roger Peace via HNN on September 26, 2021

The word "bipartisanship" with the "bi" scribbled out.

The Case for Partisanship

Bipartisanship might not be dead. But it is on life support. And it’s long past time we pulled the plug.

by Osita Nwanevu via The New Republic on September 20, 2021

Anti-evolution books for sale in Dayton, Tenn.

Why the Culture Wars in Schools Are Worse Than Ever Before

The history of education battles — from fights over evolution to critical race theory — shows why the country’s divisions are growing sharper.

by Jonathan Zimmerman via Politico Magazine on September 19, 2021

Picketers from National Women's Party

She Asked President Woodrow Wilson For 22 Suffrage "Favors." She Got 21.

Wilson became a great supporter of the 19th Amendment, but only because he worked alongside a woman who spoke his language.

by Kimberly A. Hamlin via Study Marry Kill on August 18, 2021

The Unreconstructed Radical

Thaddeus Stevens was a fierce opponent of the “odious” compromises in the Constitution, and of the North’s compromises after the Civil War.

by Richard Kreitner via The Baffler on May 13, 2021

Joe Biden surrounded by words emanating from a book.

Can America’s Problems Be Fixed By A President Who Loves Jon Meacham?

How a pop historian shaped the soul of Biden’s presidency.

by Kara Voght via Mother Jones on April 2, 2021

A negative from a photo of Abraham Lincoln

How Historians Say Abraham Lincoln Is Quoted and Misquoted

As Presidents' Day approaches, historians look back at the most notable recent uses and misuses of "the Great Emancipator's" words.

by Olivia B. Waxman via TIME on February 11, 2021

This Guilty Land: Every Possible Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln is widely revered, while many Americans consider John Brown mad. Yet it was Brown’s strategy that brought slavery to an end.

by Eric Foner via London Review of Books on December 17, 2020

The Real History of Race and the New Deal

Material benefits trumped FDR's terrible civil rights records.

by Matthew Yglesias via Slow Boring on December 11, 2020

A drawing of George Washington surrounded by seals representing the states.

The Constitutional Convention Debates the Electoral College

How the founders settled on the system we love to hate today.

by Jason Yonce via Journal of the American Revolution on November 5, 2020

Artistic photo with american flags

Richard Hofstadter’s Discontents

Why did the historian come to fear the very movements he once would have celebrated?

by Jeet Heer via The Nation on October 6, 2020

Abraham Lincoln

Why We Keep Reinventing Abraham Lincoln

Revisionist biographers have given us countless perspectives, from Honest Abe to Killer Lincoln. Is there a version that’s true to his time and attuned to ours?

by Adam Gopnik via The New Yorker on September 21, 2020

The Flawed Genius of the Constitution

The document counted my great-great-grandfather as 3/5 of a free person. But the Framers don’t own the version we live by today. We do.

by Danielle Allen via The Atlantic on September 17, 2020

Rutherford B. Hayes and Donald Trump.

The Election From Our Past That Blares a Warning for 2020

A contested presidential election in 1876 produced a devastating compromise.

by Richard Kreitner via Made By History on September 11, 2020

A Disputed Election, a Constitutional Crisis, Polarisation… Welcome to 1876

Eric Foner sees parallels with our own time but warns that yesterday’s solution would be a disaster.

by Martin Pengelly via The Guardian on August 23, 2020

J.F.K.’s “Profiles in Courage” Has a Racism Problem. What Should We Do About It?

Kennedy defined courage as a willingness to take an unpopular stand in service of a larger, higher cause. But what cause?

by Nicholas Lemann via The New Yorker on July 23, 2020

A Definitive Case Against the Electoral College

Why the framers created the Electoral College — and why we need to get rid of it.

by Sean Illing, Jesse Wegman via Vox on July 21, 2020

Tear Down This Statue

The shameful career of Roger Sherman, mild-mannered Yankee.

by Richard Kreitner via The Baffler on July 6, 2020

Alternate Histories

A conversation with John Nichols about the night in 1944 that altered the trajectory of the Democratic Party.

by John Nichols, Wen Stephenson via The Baffler on May 21, 2020

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