Person

Eric Foner

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Ted Cruz.

The Dangerous Historical Precedent for Ted Cruz’s Shameless Electoral College Gambit

The Texas senator claims to be moved by the spirit of 1876, but he’s just another huckster playing a risky game with democracy.

Born Enslaved, Patrick Francis Healy 'Passed' His Way to Lead Georgetown University

Because the 19th-century college president appeared white, he was able to climb the ladder of the Jesuit community.
A man plowing with a mule

Revisiting “Forty Acres and a Mule”

The backstory to the backstory of America’s mythic promise.

Trump and Lincoln Are Opposite Kinds of Presidents

History is not kind to those who divide and dither.

1619 and All That

The Editor of the American Historical Review weighs in on recent historiographical debates around the New York Times' 1619 Project.

Trump's not Richard Nixon. He's Andrew Johnson.

Betrayal. Paranoia. Cowardice. We've been here before.

The Most Dangerous American Idea

No belief in the history of the US has been more threatening to democracy than the certainty that only white people are fit for self-government.

How the South Won the Civil War

During Reconstruction, true citizenship finally seemed in reach for black Americans. Then their dreams were dismantled.
Illustration of money burning

Obituary for a Billion-Dollar Boondoggle

Nearly two decades ago, historians embraced a hugely wasteful federal education program. It’s past time to reckon with that.

Ira Berlin, Transformative Historian of Slavery in America, Dies at 77

He “put the history of slavery at the center of our understanding of American history.”

The International Vision of John Willis Menard, the First African-American Elected to Congress

Although he was denied his House seat, Menard continued his activism with the goal of uniting people across the Western Hemisphere.
Robert E. Lee statue

The Fight Over Virginia’s Confederate Monuments

How the state’s past spurred a racial reckoning.

Yes, Gone With the Wind Is Another Neo-Confederate Monument

How the classic film helped promote a Reconstruction myth that was central to the maintenance of Jim Crow.

How About Erecting Monuments to the Heroes of Reconstruction?

Americans should build this pivotal post–Civil War era into the new politics of historical memory.

Tear Down the Confederates’ Symbols

The battle against the remnants of Confederate sentiment is a battle against both white supremacy and class rule.
Violence during the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville on August 12, 2017.

Is America Headed for a New Kind of Civil War?

The recent unrest in Charlottesville, Virginia, after a white-supremacist rally has stoked some Americans’ fears of a new civil war.

The Myth of the Kindly General Lee

The legend of the Confederate leader’s heroism and decency is based in the fiction of a person who never existed.

'Segregation Had to Be Invented'

During the late 19th century, blacks and whites in the South lived closer together than they do today.
National Park Service ranger presented with Senate resolution for new monument.

Monumental Effort: Historians and the Creation of the National Monument to Reconstruction

Two historians weigh in on President Obama's move to designate a national monument to Reconstruction in South Carolina.

How Hillary Clinton Got On The Wrong Side of Liberals' Changing Theory of American History

What she doesn't get about race and the Civil War.