Barry Goldwater

The scene at the 1964 Republican National Convention, when Barry Goldwater was nominated and black Republicans’ worst fears about their party were confirmed.

The pulsating anger in San Francisco 60 years ago became the party's animating spirit.

Donald Trump’s candidacy wasn’t the first time the Republican Party was split by an outsider declaring war on the establishment elite.

A 1964 presidential campaign advertisement for Lyndon Baines Johnson.

How the Southern Strategy of the late 20th century gave rise to the modern GOP.

Trump champions “law and order” while calling for the Constitution’s suspension. But there’s no tension between the two.

The modern Republican Party has always exploited and encouraged extremism.

A new biography of Robert Welch traces the origins and history of the anti-Communist John Birch Society and provides historical perspective on the Trump era.

On the laughing emptiness at the center of the Republican Party.

The inspiration for the 1964 “Extremism in the defense of liberty” speech he wrote for Barry Goldwater.

The famed economist’s theories were embraced by Beltway power brokers in both parties. Finally, a Democratic president is turning the page on a legacy of ruin.

Sixty years ago, many GOP leaders resisted radicals in their ranks. Now they’re not even trying.

Six decades ago, leaders in the GOP backed away from the conspiracy theories peddled by the leader of the increasingly influential John Birch Society.

In 1964, the John Birch Society was the most active far-right group in the United States—unless you count the Republican Party.

The collapse of the Republican Party.

A brief history of a political dog whistle.

Have historians of the conservative movement focused too much on its intellectuals?

The untold story of the ideological realignment that upended the nation.

Trump campaigns like Richard Nixon and George Wallace, but in reality, he is Lyndon Johnson: a man who has lost control of the machine.

Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden are the icons of an ideological split among today’s Democrats, echoing a similar split in the Republican party of 1964.