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Senator Mike Lee Disregards History While Claiming to Support American Unity

by Matt Chumchal

Senator Mike Lee this week claimed proposed museums dedicated to the history of women and Latino/as in America would foster division by ethnicity and sex. A biology professor shares an experience with the new National Museum of African American History and Culture and argues that the proposed museums are in fact needed to create the understanding needed to forge unity.

A Narrow Definition of "Winner" Shouldn't Hide McGovern's Moral Clarity

by Mike McQuillan

A former senate aide and campaign volunteer saw George McGovern's moral clarity and decency up close, and says the nation is worse off for branding him a loser after the 1972 election. 

Seven Years from the "Day of Infamy" to "Human Rights Day"

by Rick Halperin

"As 2020 comes to a close, even in the midst of a terrible pandemic which may claim 300,000 U.S. deaths by year’s end,  we would do well to pause and reflect upon how much progress has been made, and still needs to be made, in the struggle for human rights."

Character was Trump's Achilles Heel

by John C. Waugh

Explaining Donald Trump's reversal of fortune between 2016 and November 3 could be as simple as recognizing that the presidency gave his character no place to hide. 

Plus ça change...? Alienation and Violence from Both Sides of Labor's Rise and Fall

by James Ottavio Castagnera

Violence in the Pennsylvania coal fields in the 1870s may or may not have been the work of an Irish secret society, but showed the anger and frustration that fueled the rise of the American labor movement. What will become of social anger today when that movement is moribund? 

Let America Be America Again

by Ed Simon

Outpourings of joy on November 7 when it became apparent Joe Biden had defeated Donald Trump don't mean that the nation's problems are solved, but spontaneous, collective celebration means people still have the capability to recognize our shared fate and work together.

Stop the Music

by Richard H. Kohn

President-Elect Biden has allowed too much speculation about his choices for Secretary of Defense and unwisely floated the name of a retired Army general for the job. He needs to make a quick commitment to a nominee whose national defense experience comes from the civil, not the military, arena.

Biden will Confront Systemic Conservatism Despite a Mandate for Change

by Steven F. Lawson

If Joe Biden wants to implement progressive change, he'll be stopped not by a lack of popular support, but by the conservatism built into American institutions. 

The Devil and Mary Lease

by Alan J. Singer

Populist and feminist agitator Mary Lease advised farmers to "raise less corn and more hell." Her brand of hell-raising, however, included a strong current of antisemitism that needs to be widely known.

The Rise (and Fall?) of Trump's Viral Death Cult

by Brian Glyn Williams

Trump's cult-leader response to COVID-19 is causing the equivalent of a Jonestown every day. 

Why the Odds Are Good that Biden Can Reduce Our Political Polarization

by Walter G. Moss

A recent HNN essay took a pessimistic view of President-Elect Biden's ability to govern a polarized nation. Walter Moss takes a longer view and finds more cause for optimism. 

Reckoning with Marcus Whitman and the Memorialization of Conquest

by Cassandra Tate

The same period that saw the public affirmation of the Confederate Lost Cause myth saw a proliferation of monuments that portrayed the conquest of the indigenous people of the west as virtuous pioneering. The case of Marcus Whitman shows a national reckoning is in order.

Affirmative Action Goes Down to Defeat in Deep Blue California

by James Thornton Harris

The defeat of California's Proposition 16 exposes some significant fault lines in the multiethnic coalition the Democratic Party hopes will support its future success. 

Will Trump's Last Fight be Against Howard Zinn (and America's History Teachers)?

by Robert Cohen

A scholar of history education says Howard Zinn's papers show that the late (and lately demonized) historian achieved something Trump fears even more than left-wing propaganda: helping students critically engage with the past. 

Blaming the Messenger: Trump, the KKK, and the War on Historians

by David Welky

Conservative demands for "patriotic" history education echo the culture war fought by the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. 

The New York Con

by David Marks

Supporters of the president will eventually realize that they trusted a man who despised them.

There is Nothing Sacred About the Military Vote

by Rachel Gunter

After a patient count, Joe Biden has claimed victory, and fears that late-arriving military absentee ballots could be subject to litigation that might decide the election have receded. This is fortunate, because history shows parties won't hesitate to interfere with the military vote for political advantage.

An Embarrassing Failure for Election Pollsters

by W. Joseph Campbell

Pollsters problems predicting the 2020 election deepened the embarrassment for a field that has suffered through – but has survived – a variety of lapses and surprises since the mid-1930s. 

Making History: A Dispatch From Early Voting

by Ron Steinman

We must commend those who stood on line and stood up for democracy. That these people waited and then voted means that as a people we are still on track in preserving the Republic and what we contend, despite attacks on its value, it still stands for. 

Conservatism Needs a Hard Pruning of Trumpism

by Jeff Bloodworth

If there is to be a healthy conservative presence in the Republican Party and the American political system, supporters and enablers of Donald Trump's abuses will need to be cleared out.