Despite boasting of his accomplishments for working Americans, Trump's record amounts to more of the same: union busting, stagnant wages, unsafe workplaces, long hours, no vacation time, and even child labor.
The dedication in 1886 of a monument to the Maryland 2nd Confederate Regiment at Gettysburg launched the movement by southern partisans to lay claim to the site of the Union victory as a monument to national reconciliation. The Grand Army of the Republic organization wasn't buying it then, and we shouldn't today.
The late Congressman John Lewis and Donald Trump offer two starkly divergent versions of the American Dream--a choice between nurturing community and freedom and acquisitive materialism.
One thing that John Adams never did was to voice a word of regret about leaving the presidency at his term’s end. None of his successors has ever violated or dishonored the precedent he established. And, if we are fortunate, none ever will.
The behavior of belligerent patriots in our times has made it clear that the type of allegiance they value most--and their image of America--leaves little room for an ethic of mutualism or compassion.
A comparison between Trump and Charles I of England suggests not only that the coming election will be rocky, but that it may take a long time to bridge the divisions in American society.
The Trump presidency is a stern test of James Madison's design for a government that could govern without becoming tyrannical. The people and the ballot may be the last of Madison's checks and balances left.
Franklin Roosevelt recognized that the concentrated economic power of big businesses was a threat to democratic society and a step on the road to fascism, and wasn't afraid to say it.
The diary of a German Social Democrat and local official who observed and opposed the Third Reich offers a warning about today's unleashed online anger.
With unification, a fundamental break with the values of the East German Communist Party was necessary. Former East German soldiers would now belong to an army of a democracy, rooted in the concept of the “citizen in uniform."
Joe Biden's efforts to run an effective campaign under COVID lockdown echo the innovations forced on James Garfield. If Biden succeeds, the "Basement Campaign" may prove as influential as the "Front Porch Campaign" of 1880.
Women of color and their allies truly won the right to vote for all American women not in 1920, but in 1965, with the passage of the Voting Rights Act.
Japan's surrender makes the question a matter of speculation, but the history of military facilties built on Tinian in the Mariana Islands suggests that American military leadership was preparing to assemble many more atomic bombs should the Pacific war have continued.
While Trump's decision to halve the contingent of US troops in Germany has drawn bipartisan condemnation, critics should recognize that whether the decision is wise or foolish for today's context, it is in line with decades of efforts to shift the burdens of collective security onto NATO allies.
While the Constitution says more about limiting the overreach of the executive branch, functioning government must beware of an underreaching executive that abdicates responsibility.
I first experienced the horror of CS gas more than 50 years ago. Today when I think of CS gas I remember how badly I felt when tear gassed on the streets of Saigon, and in Northern Ireland.
Most Americans' knowledge of Hiroshima and Nagasaki reflects how American leaders in 1945 wanted the atomic bombings remembered more than their real history.
