Person

Donald Trump

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Degeneration Nation

How a Gilded Age best seller shaped American race discourse.
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We Need to Talk About Secession

With chatter about Texas leaving the union on the rise, two new books remind us what it was like the last time we tried to go it alone.
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The Long Roots of Endless War

A new history shows how the glut of US military bases abroad has led to a constant state of military conflict.
Rudy Giuliani speaking at a Trump rally
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Republicans Won’t Speak Out Against Trump Because They’re Afraid Politically

And history says they have a reason to be.
Bubbles with numbers of black Georgia school teachers, centered is 1896 when there were 3316.

American History XYZ

The chaotic quest to mythologize America’s past.
Photo of people protesting and demanding all votes are counted the day after Election Day at McPherson Square, near the White House.
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President Trump’s False Claims About Election Fraud Are Dangerous

Trump’s campaign to delegitimize the vote has a familiar ring. It evokes an egregious example of election fraud in the 1890s.
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Good TV Demands Results on Election Night, but That’s Bad for Democracy

The history of tuning in to televised election returns.
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Poll Watchers and the Long History of Voter Intimidation

President Trump has called on supporters, including law enforcement officers, to monitor election sites. Voter intimidation tactics have a long history.
Joe Biden.
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What’s Driving So Many Republicans to Support Joe Biden?

The collapse of the Republican Party.
Cover image of "Freedom an Unruly History"

What We Call Freedom Has Never Been About Being Free

The modern conception of freedom emerged as an antidemocratic reaction by elites who wanted to curtail state power.
American Imperialism

Warfare State

Democrats and Republicans are increasingly united in an anti-China front. But their approaches to U.S. foreign policy diverge.
Drawing of Lincoln with his hand on a Bible, being sworn in to office.

The Presidential Transition That Shattered America

A Trump-Biden transition is sure to be scary. But it’d be hard to beat Buchanan-Lincoln.

A Possible Majority

A political history of the present moment.
Donald Trump at a rally
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Trump’s Rhetoric About the Election Channels a Dark Episode From Our Past

The only coup in American history came after scare-mongering that wouldn't sound out of place in 2020.
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A Note from the Fireline

Climate change and the colonial legacy of fire suppression.
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We All Think History Will Be on Our Side. Here's Why We Shouldn't Rely on That Assumption.

The hope for historical vindication is loud now but not new.
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What the Rise of Reagan Tells Us About the Age of Trump

Rick Perlstein's "Reaganland" charts the conservative counter-revolution that moved the US to the right.

How the 1619 Project Took Over 2020

It’s a hashtag, a talking point, a Trump rally riff. The inside story of a New York Times project that launched a year-long culture war.
A row of Supreme Court justices.

Amid National Crises, Lincoln and His Republicans Remade the Supreme Court to Fit Their Agenda

Political contests over the ideological slant of the Court are nothing new.
The Supreme Court building in Washington, D. C.

Why History Shows 'Court Packing' Isn't Extreme

Court packing obscures more than it reveals about the current debate over the size of the Supreme Court.