Richard Hofstadter

How a lurid 19th-century memoir of sexual abuse produced one of the ugliest features of American politics.

Spencerism in America.

In 1885, white rioters murdered dozens of their Asian neighbors in Rock Springs, Wyoming. 140 years later, the story of the atrocity is still being unearthed.

The politician presents a riddle for historians. He was a beloved populist but also a crackpot conspiracist. Were his politics tainted by his strange beliefs?

Myths to explain American history and chart a path to the future once helped to bind the country together. Today, they are absorbed into the culture wars.

Isaiah Bowman was one of the worst college presidents in American history.

On Kliph Nesteroff’s book, “Outrageous: A History of Showbiz and the Culture Wars.”

A review of "C. Vann Woodward: America’s Historian."

“It’s important to study history if you want to be an intelligent citizen in a democracy.”

The rise and fall of the WASP.

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

On the failed dreams and forgotten ruins of William Hope Harvey.

"What makes this conspiracy theory so damaging is its adaptability."

People in the United States no longer agree on the nation’s purpose, values, history, or meaning. Is reconciliation possible?

In becoming the party of Trump, the G.O.P. confronts the kind of existential crisis that has destroyed American parties in the past.

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 our current politics we must be attentive to how talk of American freedom has long been connected to the presumed right of whites to dominate everyone else.

Historians' prohibition on 'presentism' crumbles under the weight of events.

Historians have been too much the ideological allies of Progressivism to permit themselves to see its master flaw.

Why the battle for history must be won in the here and now.