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A portrait of Andrew Jackson.

Whiggism Is Still Wrong

Vivek Ramaswamy says he wants to "make hard work cool again." He isn’t the first.
by Sohrab Ahmari via The American Conservative on November 21, 2023
Davy Crockett monument in Texas.

The Political Example of Davy Crockett

As a congressman, Davy Crockett found ways to navigate populist upheaval and maintain his own independence.
by Miles Smith IV via Law & Liberty on November 12, 2024
Thomas Nast’s 1874 elephant illustration.

What History Tells Us Might Happen to the Republican Party

The signs that precede the crumbling of American political parties and the creation of new ones.
by Lindsay M. Chervinsky via The Bulwark on July 31, 2024
Engraving of President William Henry Harrison

This President was Widely Attacked for Being Too Old to Run — at 67

In 1840, William Henry Harrison was mocked for his presidential run at age 67 — 15 years younger than President Biden would be at the start of a second term.
by Ronald G. Shafer via Retropolis on November 12, 2023
Drawing of Abraham Lincoln as a guest at Ann Spriggs' Washington, D.C. boarding house, 1906.

The D.C. Boarding House That Moved the Needle on Slavery

Where abolitionists and congressmen—including Lincoln—dined, debated, and became bedfellows.
by Bennett Parten via Zócalo Public Square on July 31, 2023
Federal Reserve Note featuring Salmon Chase held by the National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History

The War with Inflation and the Confederacy

During the Civil War, the Lincoln administration demonstrated that a progressive agenda and effective anti-inflationary measures could overlap.
by Andrew Donnelly via Public Books on September 20, 2022
Painting of a plantation.

The Old South Shall Rise Again

On the economic system of Silicon Valley.
by Victor Davis Hanson via The New Criterion on August 24, 2022
Lithograph of an armed mob attacking another group in the street.

The Philadelphia Bible Riots

The debate regarding which Bible kids should read in school was about whether Catholic immigrants should have the full rights of American citizenship.
by John Bicknell via Law & Liberty on October 13, 2021
A portrait of John C. Calhoun

No, John C. Calhoun Didn’t Invent the Filibuster

As convenient as it might be to blame the filibuster on the famous defender of slavery, the historical record is much messier.
by Robert Elder via The Bulwark on September 20, 2021
John Tyler.

Two on John Tyler: Tippecanoe and Tyler Too!

After the Whig president’s shocking death, his vice president and successor proved to be a Whig by expedience only
by Richard Norton Smith via The Wall Street Journal on June 5, 2020

"He Lies Like a Dog": The First Effort to Impeach a President Was Led by His Own Party

Long before President Donald Trump, there was President John Tyler.
by Ronald G. Shafer via Washington Post on September 23, 2019

How Davy Crockett Became an American Legend

Was Davy Crockett a sellout? And does it matter?
by Phil Edwards, Coleman Lowndes via Vox on August 7, 2019
Millard Filmore.
partner

Remembering the Sins of Millard Fillmore

A little-remembered president's most notorious act.
by Carole Emberton via Made By History on January 5, 2018

Lincoln: The Great Uncompromiser

He fought to remake the center—not yield to it.
by Matthew Karp via The Nation on October 25, 2017
Mitch McConnell
partner

Partisanship is an American Tradition — And Good for Democracy

Bipartisanship is the exception, not the rule.
by Aaron Astor via Made By History on July 12, 2017

The Revival of John Quincy Adams

The sixth president, long derided as a hapless elitist, is suddenly relevant again 250 years after his birth.
by David Waldstreicher via The Atlantic on July 11, 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
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.
by Philip Wallach via Brookings on March 6, 2017

The Wrong Side of 'the Right Side of History'

President Obama espouses a facile faith in history bending toward perfection and morality-against evidence and reason.
by David A. Graham via The Atlantic on December 21, 2015

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.
by Henry M. McKiven Jr. via Journal of American History on December 1, 2007
Barack Obama holds up a baby on the campaign trail
partner

Charm Offensive: Why Politicians Reach for ‘Relatable’

For American politicians, the obsession with appealing to the everyman dates back to the raucous campaign of 1840.
via Retro Report on September 15, 2024
Kevin McCarthy
partner

What 1856 Teaches Us About the Ramifications of the House Speaker Fight

The battle is worth winning for Kevin McCarthy — and could reshape the Republican Party.
by Corey M. Brooks via Made By History on January 5, 2023
Black and white photo of Charles Sumner

“A Solemn Battle Between Good and Evil.” Charles Sumner’s Radical, Compelling Message of Abolition

The senator from Massachusetts and the birth of the Republican Party.
by Timothy Shenk via Literary Hub on October 24, 2022
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.
by Kathryn Ostrofsky on September 8, 2022
A political cartoon in which a king sitting on a litter carried by enslaved men rests his elbow on three skulls labeled Fugitive Slave Bill.

Transcendentalists Against Slavery

Why have historians overlooked the connections between abolitionism and the famous New England cultural movement?
by Peter Wirzbicki, David Moore via Mere Orthodoxy on February 9, 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
An excerpt of a newspaper from the 19th century.

How US Newspapers Became Utterly Ubiquitous in the 1830s

Ken Ellingwood on the social and political function of political media.
by Ken Ellingwood via Literary Hub on May 6, 2021
The GOP elephant depicted as falling apart

What Is Happening to the Republicans?

In becoming the party of Trump, the G.O.P. confronts the kind of existential crisis that has destroyed American parties in the past.
by Jelani Cobb via The New Yorker on March 8, 2021
John C. Calhoun

American Heretic, American Burke

A review of Robert Elder's new biography of John C. Calhoun.
by Allen C. Guelzo via The New Criterion on February 4, 2021
This 1856 political cartoon depicts the responses of the three candidates to the results of the election. Winning Democrat James Buchanan sits reading the returns of the election while newspaper editors approach from the left. Behind them the defeated Republican candidate John C. Fremont rides off into the West. To the right the second defeated candidate, Millard Fillmore, laments his fall into the “caverns of Know-Nothingism.”

Here’s What Happens to a Conspiracy-Driven Party

The modern GOP isn't the first party to embrace huge conspiracies. But the lessons should be sobering.
by Zachary Karabell via Politico Magazine on January 30, 2021
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