Joseph McCarthy

Before his abuses of power were exposed, he was celebrated as a scourge of Nazis, Communists, and subversives.

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.

Is the Republican Party compatible with democracy?

Institutions meant to secure peace, from NATO to the U.N., date back to Truman’s Presidency. So do the conflicts threatening that peace.

A new book shows just how porous the dividing line has been between the far right and mainstream conservatism.

J. Edgar Hoover had both of them in his sights. Yet neither one was ever arrested. The untold story of how the Hall brothers beat the FBI.

The charges, while provocative, offer a framework to reckon with systemic racial injustice — past and present.

A short history of a made-up constitutional doctrine that gives presidents too much power.

The Trumpist wing of the GOP uses history as a bludgeon, without regard to context, logic, or proportionality.

The Rosenbergs were executed for being Soviet spies, but their sons have spent decades trying to clear their mother’s name. Are they close to a breakthrough?

A review of Jon Meacham's newest book and documentary.

The New York-to-Washington train had 21 cars, 700 passengers—and millions of trackside mourners.

The first volume of Frederik Logevall’s biography of JFK reveals the scope of his ambition and the weakness of his political commitments.

Such women have long pushed American politics to the right, and their ideas have become mainstream.

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

The answer can change over time.

Jonathan W. Wilson offers a constructively critical review of Wilfred McClay's American history textbook "Land of Hope."

In the 1950s, residents of Mosinee, Wisconsin, staged a coup to warn of the red menace. The lessons of that historical footnote have never been more relevant.

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

In a recent speech, Trump looks to America's past for answers. However, the history he recounts is glaringly limited.