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political history

  • SOURCE: The New Republic
    2/22/2021

    Pankaj Mishra’s Reckoning With Liberalism’s Bloody Past

    Indian critic Pankaj Mishra argues in a new book of essays that recent liberal concern about right-wing politicians declaring support for "western civilization" ignores the way that liberal colonialists have embraced ideas of cultural supremacy. 

  • SOURCE: Boston Review
    2/17/2021

    The Americans Who Embraced Mussolini

    Katy Hull's book looks to four American fascist sympathizers to conclude that the appeal of fascism reflected anxieties about how the United States could function as a world power and connect communitarian values with national progress. 

  • How Democrats Lost the Great Plains

    by Ross Benes

    Ross Benes argues that the Democratic party has lost an entire political generation of influence in the Great Plains by forfeiting the region's legacy of farmer populism, making the Plains a Republican stronghold and a barrier to progressive legislation. 

  • SOURCE: Vox
    1/13/2021

    Can the Republican Party be Saved?

    Geoffrey Kabaservice is the author of "Rule and Ruin," a history of the Republican Party since 1950. He discusses the party's turn toward right-wing radicalism with Vox's Sean Illing. 

  • SOURCE: Bloomberg CityLab
    1/14/2021

    How Fear Took Over the American Suburbs

    Historian Kyle Riismandel's new book “Neighborhood of Fear” examines the cultivation of a white suburban culture of vigilantism and the political exploitation of fear of community change in the late 20th century. 

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    12/8/2020

    Even if Georgia Turns Blue, North Carolina may not Follow

    by Michael Bitzer and Virginia Summey

    North Carolina's politics have long been characterized by a competition between fairly evenly balanced forces of conservatism and moderation. Democrats who hope to permanently tip the state in their favor are likely to be disappointed. 

  • SOURCE: The New Republic
    12/9/2020

    The End of the Businessman President

    by Kyle Edward Williams

    Will Donald Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic mark the end of the pernicious myths that the popular good is served by running government like a business, or that business executives have a talent for governing? 

  • SOURCE: Boston Review
    12/9/2020

    How Did the GOP Become the Party of Ideas?

    by Lawrence B. Glickman

    The Republican Party's reputation as the "Party of Ideas" in the late 1970s and 1980s was generally created by Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who derided the New Deal and Great Society as stale and outdated in a struggle to push the Democratic Party to the right. 

  • SOURCE: Esoteric Political History
    11/3/2020

    When Black Voters Went Blue

    Leah Wright Rigeur discusses the process by which Black voters shifted from loyal Republicans to Democrats. 

  • SOURCE: Made by History at The Washington Post
    10/31/2020

    Want to See Black Women Making History? Look to Congress

    by Ashley D. Farmer

    The success of "The Squad" in changing the image of Congressional leadership reflects the legacy of women like Barbara Jordan, the first Black woman elected to the Texas state senate on the way to a seat in Congress. 

  • 10/18/2020

    Lessons from the 18th Century Dutch Republic

    by Matthijs Tieleman

    The history of the Dutch Republic demonstrates that polarization can gradually destroy a country from within and can easily be exploited by foreign actors. The embrace of political pluralism by every citizen is the key antidote to the rot of polarization.