Current Events that Relate to History
-
Book ReviewHow the Capitalism of the 1980s Created Donald Trump’s Theory of the State
The proliferation of privately held companies during the Reagan years laid the foundations for Trump’s approach to government.The Nation -
ExplainerGerrymandering
The notion that democratic elections should allow voters to make a real choice between candidates sits uneasily with untrammeled redistricting power.London Review of Books -
CommentWhat Is an American Hero, Anyway?
Lists of great artists say more about the list-maker than the artist.The American Scholar -
AntecedentThe Fall of a Sparrow
A war photographer’s unflinching images break the idealism surrounding a young Civil War hero’s death.The Paris Review -
Book ReviewFrom the Cesspool to the Mainstream
New fusionist intellectuals are the missing link between nineteenth-century race science, twentieth-century libertarianism, and the contemporary alt-right.New York Review of Books -
AntecedentThe Presidential Fitness Test Won’t Make America ‘Tough’ Again
The Trump administration Is borrowing from a failed cold-war era playbook.Zócalo Public Square -
exhibitImperial Ambitions
Five hundred years of empire building in North America and beyond its borders.
From the HNN Archive
-
How to Succeed in Government Without Really Trying
The long history of promising an “efficient” federal government. -
If the Slipper Doesn’t Fit
A scorched shoe is a crucial part of Zelda Fitzgerald’s modern mythology. But there’s no proof it existed. -
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. -
Elevating the Few
What JD Vance excludes from the history of the Civil War and immigration. -
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.