Power

"Inevitably, the age of national bootblacks and national oyster houses and national blacksmiths produced national history books."

The shift in attitudes about Nixon's impeachment suggests that Congress' actions can shape public opinion.

I reviewed publications from the founding era, and discovered that “executive power” doesn’t imply what most scholars thought.

A review of a book by Sean Wilentz's "No Property in Man," which argues that the document is full of anti-slavery language.

Is Trump's power as president becoming just what the Founders feared?

Conservatives and liberals both cite the nation’s charter, but they’re not talking about the same parts of it.

Despite a thriving queer community in Washington, the 1950s State Department fired gay and lesbian workers en masse.

It was the original idea behind Medicare itself.

Admiral William D. Leahy was instrumental in bringing the Allies together to agree upon the invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe.

Why is U.S. foreign policy dominated by an unelected, often reckless cohort of “the best and the brightest”?

What the backlash to the emergency legislation reveals about the age-old pathologies of the right.

During the Civil War, surrendering was an honorable way of accepting defeat — under the right circumstances.

Trump is just the latest in a long line of executives to stiff-arm the Constitution and ignore congressional powers.

Was the impeachment of Andrew Johnson a matter of national principles? Or an affair of pragmatic politics?

"The Common Wind" covers the radical world of black mariners, rebels, and runaways banding together to realize their freedom.

How one of America's original Bernie Bros became an outspoken critic of the left.

A consideration of four recent books that attempt to contend with the rise of Trumpism at home and abroad.

As Arkansas politics becomes more conservative, voters are using the ballot for progressive ends.

On the mournful threads connecting his half-century in politics.

Single-use plastic is clogging oceans and landfills. The plastic industry has waged a decades-long campaign to keep it selling it.

On the danger that the US government's habit of redacting official documents poses to democracy.

His racism and intolerance have always been in evidence; only slowly did he begin to understand how to use them to his advantage.

Introducing a new digital history project focused on the ways Americans voted from 1788 to 1825.

After Republicans lost their first election in 1856, Democrats declared slavery opposition radical and fringe. Then came 1860.

Every four years, political parties document their positions in written platforms. How often do women's issues appear in the text?

Johnson’s impeachment was driven by his refusal to rid the country of the lingering effects of slavery.

How the Vermont senator went from a third-party independent to a 2020 frontrunner.

A political usage guide for a feckless commentariat.

The Great Emancipator has a lesson for today's Democrats about how to play constitutional hardball.

And why the Democrats can’t use it against him.