Richard Hofstadter

Today’s populist resurgence has us rethinking the role these movements play in U.S. politics.

Our difficulties today are far removed from what the Populist Party tried to tackle. But their movement can nourish our imaginations.

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

Since the founding generation, there has been a rational consistent fear that the office of president is powerful to be constrained by democratic institutions.

How Fiorello La Guardia and a popular front of radicals and reformers transformed New York City.

Most important is the path pursued by my mother. She sustained herself by engaging socially, rather than battling politically or withdrawing stoically.

Roosevelt’s popularity, charisma, and progressive politics.

How he used America’s past to rescue its future.

Educators can fight back against Trump’s attacks by re-embracing “old-fashioned” disciplines and ideas.

It used to be progressives who distrusted the experts. What happened?

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.