Gil Troy

Gil Troy is a professor of history at McGill University. His latest book — his tenth — is The Age of Clinton: America in the 1990s .

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• 
  Oct 18, 2016
  

  In Praise of Abandoning Your Party

  by Gil Troy

  Trump calls GOP defectors 'disloyal.' But the Founders would approve.

  

• 
  Oct 14, 2016
  

  Know-Nothing Bigot Who Won Big

  by Gil Troy

  He trashed immigrants, targeted one religious group, and brought political discourse to a new low.
  

• 
  Sep 29, 2016
  

  The Man Who Went Full Trump for FDR

  by Gil Troy

  He made up stories to smear the opposition and barely backpedaled when called out—Charlie Michelson perfected the nasty art of political mud-slinging.
  

• 
  Sep 18, 2016
  

  The Man Who Could Make Your Kids Less Ignorant

  by Gil Troy

  College campuses across the U.S. are in an uproar about issues of free speech, but perhaps they should be outraged by the uneducated students they are churning out.
  

• 
  Sep 13, 2016
  

  When America Rejected its Homegrown 'Joe McNazi'

  by Gil Troy

  Joe McWilliams was the "handsome" face for anti-Semitism and other bigotry early in the 20th century.
  

• 
  Aug 21, 2016
  

  Jonathan Daniels: The Forgotten Civil Rights Preacher Killed by a Cop in Alabama

  by Gil Troy

  Jonathan Daniels ‘could have had any benefit he wanted.’ But in 1965 Alabama, the Episcopal seminarian was gunned down while trying to buy a Coke with two black girls.
  

• 
  Aug 15, 2016
  

  How General Motors Saved Rosa Parks

  by Gil Troy

  In 1994 Civil Rights legend Rosa Parks had her house broken into and robbed. Then, without any publicity, the car giant stepped in to help.
  

• 
  Jul 25, 2016
  

  How Originality Vanished From Political Speeches

  by Gil Troy

  Once upon a time, having a speechwriter at all would have been the shameful thing.

  
  
  
  

• 
  Jul 25, 2016
  

  U.S. Political Conventions Have Been Weird From The Start

  by Gil Troy

  William Wirt was a noted trial lawyer, a bestselling author, and the nominee of the nation’s first political convention, in 1831. And then the story gets really strange.
  

• 
  Jul 19, 2016
  

  When Eisenhower Took on Big Oil

  by Gil Troy

  Republicans weren’t always opposed to big government intervention, and one of the party’s icons wasn’t afraid to do it against the wishes of the oil industry.
  

• 
  Jul 4, 2016
  

  When Elie Wiesel Confronted Ronald Reagan

  by Gil Troy

  Time and again, the Holocaust survivor showed great courage, but in his last years he was saddened by how little the world had changed.
  

• 
  Jul 4, 2016
  

  Inside the Nazi Camp on Long Island

  by Gil Troy

  Next door to a Germans-only colony featuring streets named Hitler and Goebbels was a youth camp with swastikas on bunks and Hitler Youth short shorts.
  

• 
  Jun 29, 2016
  

  The Racist Origins of the SAT

  by Gil Troy

  While it unintentionally aided the disadvantaged in its earlier forms, the SAT was the fruit of a very poisonous tree.
  

• 
  Jun 19, 2016
  

  How a Sexist Prank Elected America’s First Female Mayor

  by Gil Troy

  Susanna Madora Salter just wanted the men in her town to stop being drunks. They just wanted to humiliate her.
  

• 
  Jun 7, 2016
  

  Westway, New York's Great Highway That Never Was

  by Gil Troy

  The idea was to transform four miles of the West Side into one hundred acres of urban parkland that would embrace houses, shops, and offices—with a six-lane highway underneath. But Westway never happened.
  

• 
  Jun 7, 2016
  

  How an Outsider President Killed a Party

  by Gil Troy

  The Whigs chose power over principles when they nominated Zachary Taylor in 1848. The party never recovered.
  

• 
  May 22, 2016
  

  The Secrets of the Woman in Hitler’s Bathtub

  by Gil Troy

  Discovered for her beauty when she was almost run over, Lee Miller went on to have one of the greatest careers that was later undermined by the horror she saw and experienced.
  

• 
  Mar 20, 2016
  

  The NY Rens Were The ‘Greatest Basketball Team You Have Never Heard Of’

  by Gil Troy

  Their home court was a dance floor. John Wooden, who played against them, said he’d never seen better team basketball. And yet the NY Rens are still unknown even to hardcore fans.
  

• 
  Mar 9, 2016
  

  The German Jew Who Became an Ottoman Pasha

  by Gil Troy

  Mehmed Emin Pasha was born a Jew in Germany, converted to Christianity and then Islam on his way to being named a ruler of an Ottoman province.
  

• 
  Mar 9, 2016
  

  Filming Rodney King’s Beating Ruined His Life

  by Gil Troy

  Twenty-five years ago, George Holliday awoke to the sound of sirens and helicopters, hit ‘record’ on his new video camera, and preserved one of the most racially volatile moments in U.S. history.