Current Events that Relate to History
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CommentA Supreme Court Justice Wrote the Greatest “No Kings” Essay in History
This opinion is a milestone in the rule of law and is regularly cited by conservative and liberal justices alike.Slate -
NewsWho’ll Be in Trump’s Hero Garden? There Are a Few Surprises.
The list of nearly 250 includes the famous, the obscure and, in some cases, the intentionally controversial.Washington Post -
LongreadWhat I Inherited from My Criminal Great-Grandparents
In working through the Winter case files, I often felt pinpricks of déjà vu: an exact turn of phrase, an absurdly specific expenditure.The New Yorker -
AntecedentAlien Enemies
The torturers have been revising, the gestapos have been busy, and the prisons have been full for generations.The Baffler -
CommentBringing American History Back Home for the 250th
Challenges, opportunities, stakes.Perspectives on History -
Book ReviewWhat Universities Owe
David Blight's report "Yale and Slavery" considers institutional accountability in the context of a world marked by systemic violence and inequality.London Review of Books -
exhibitFederal Bureaucracy
The federal government is the nation’s biggest employer. To many, its size is a problem in itself. This exhibit asks: how big is too big, and what do we miss when we focus on size alone?
From the HNN Archive
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How to Succeed in Government Without Really Trying
The long history of promising an “efficient” federal government. -
So Ductile Is History in the Hands of Man!
The past and present of counterfactual history, from antiquity to the Napoleonic Wars to a few very active subreddits. -
Indifferent to the Fate of Freedom Elsewhere
Jimmy Carter is known for his defense of human rights worldwide. But in 1979, he threatened to deport thousands of Iranian student protesters. -
An Attempt to Defeat Constitutional Order
After the Civil War, conservatives used terrorism, cold-blooded murder, and economic coercion to fight the new state constitution in South Carolina. -
Whose Side Are College Administrators On?
There’s a long history of politicians targeting student protesters — and of campus leaders abetting those efforts. -
Solve for AI
What the history of the pocket calculator reveals about the future of AI in classrooms. -
“At Any Future Time”
In 1880, the daughter of a Welsh politician turned to fiction to expose perspectives missing from the official record, upending histories for generations to come. -
Letting the World Scream
In 1984, the U.S. rejected the International Court of Justice’s jurisdiction, revealing its tendency to ignore international rules it sees as unfavorable — even when it helped write them. -
Scared Out of the Community
Between 1929 and 1939 approximately half a million Mexicans left the United States. Many of the departing families included American-born children to whom Mexico, not the United States, was the foreign land. -
When Good Housekeeping Meant Getting Vaccinated Against Polio
The pages of 1950s lifestyle magazines offer a glimpse of a time when childhood vaccines were anything but controversial.