Roundup

Senators hail their emperor, but Trump’s no shoo-in for a second term

by Niall Ferguson

The eventual Democratic nominee will have at least some chance of beating Trump.

When White Women Wanted a Monument to Black ‘Mammies’

by Alison M. Parker

A 1923 fight shows Confederate monuments are about power, not Southern heritage.

World War III’s Newest Battlefield

by Michael T. Klare

U.S. Troops Head for the Far North

Trump impeachment acquittal is bad news for democracy, but history shows us how to cope

by Frederick E. Hoxie

We have been here before. Our predecessors dug in and took it one topic, one government failure and one election at a time. We should, too.

Who’s Really Shredding Standards on Capitol Hill?

by Joanne Freeman

Naming the alleged whistle-blower is much worse than tearing up a speech.

‘1917’ Turns a Horrific War Into an Uplifting Hero’s Journey

by Cathy Tempelsman

World War I was a disaster, but Sam Mendes’s Oscar-nominated epic paints a dangerously misleading picture of the conflict.

What Will the Next Decade Bring? The 1920s Offer an Answer

by Ted Widmer

It has been a long time since the winter of 1920, but the old fault lines are still visible.

The forgotten book that launched the Reagan Revolution

by Craig Fehrman

While Reagan’s biographers have explored the influence of GE and SAG on the budding politician, they’ve largely ignored what came next — namely “Where’s the Rest of Me?”

Roundup Top 10!

This week's broad sampling of opinion pieces found on the Internet, as selected by the editor of HNN.

The divisive case for giving Rush Limbaugh the Medal of Freedom

by Brian Rosenwald

One of our most transformative figures has also been deeply polarizing.  

The Art of the Deal, Pentagon-Style

by William J. Astore

The list of recent debacles should be as obvious as it is alarming: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Yemen (and points around and in between).

What J-Lo and Shakira missed in their Super Bowl halftime show

by Petra Rivera-Rideau

Their performance perpetuated the marginalization of Afro-Latinos and other people of African descent.

The United States and Saudi Arabia aren’t allies. They never have been.

by Ellen R. Wald

One of our key ideas about the Middle East is wrong.

We’re Still Living in Stalin’s World

by Diana Preston

At the Yalta Conference 75 years ago, the Soviet leader got everything he wanted — and shaped global politics for decades.

The Risky Dream of the Fast Food Franchise

by Marcia Chatelain

Americans have long pinned economic hopes on fast-food chains. And where there are hopes, there are scams.

Why You May Never Learn the Truth About ICE

by Matthew Connelly

The National Archives is letting millions of documents, including many related to immigrants’ rights, be destroyed or deleted.

A Union Broken With a Senate Surrender

by Jamie Stiehm

The real rub is that the president is changing us Americans, giving light to a dark crevice in our character. He embodies — and emboldens — baleful defiance. The great presidents, like cheerful, sunny Franklin D. Roosevelt, bring out the best in us.

Rosa Parks on Police Brutality: The Speech We Never Heard

by Say Burgin

In 1965, Rosa Parks would have had a lot to say about police brutality.

Black History Month has a little known Catholic history as well

by Shannen Dee Williams

In 1949, famed Harlem Renaissance writer Langston Hughes celebrated Negro History Week (the precursor to Black History Month) with members of the Oblate Sisters of Providence and their students at the all black and Catholic St. Alphonsus School.

History Has Its Eyes on You, Senate, and if You Don't Know, Now You Know

by Jamie Stiehm

Aaron Burr famously foresaw it all, in the room where it happens one winter day in 2020: the Senate chamber.