Roundup

America: The Redeemer Nation

by David Brooks

Today, we have no common national narrative, no shared way of interpreting the flow of events. Without a common story, we don’t know what our national purpose is.

What to Do with Monuments Whose History We’ve Forgotten

by Nicholas Lemann

The legacy of Carl Schurz has changed significantly since a statue in his honor was unveiled in New York City in 1913.

Video of the Week: Before Stonewall, Julius' Bar Went Down in Gay History

by John Paul Brammer

Three years before the Stonewall riots, Julius' Bar in New York City made gay history. Listen to the story of Dick Leitsch, the man who was denied service for being gay in this very bar in 1966 in what has come to be known as the historic "Sip-In."

The Supply-Side Swindle

by Brent Cebul

Until liberals understand that supply-side tax cuts are a political strategy dressed as an economic theory, they will be doomed to repeat their technically accurate but utterly irrelevant arguments.

The Thibodaux Massacre Left 60 African-Americans Dead and Spelled the End of Unionized Farm Labor in the South for Decades

by Calvin Schermerhorn

The workers created a union to defend their rights. The union died with the strikers, and the assassins went unpunished.

Colin Kaepernick and the Legacy of the Negro National Anthem

by Brent Staples

The truth is that the maxims about freedom implied in the song describe a condition the country has yet to achieve. People who confront that reality by kneeling prayerfully on the football field are often more determinedly patriotic than those who reflexively stand.

Can withering public trust in government be traced back to the JFK assassination?

by Ryan Kellus Turner

In the minds of many, the assassination remains a tragedy cloaked in mystery. How does this lack of closure – and the general distrust it fomented – resonate in American culture and politics today?

Beware the Bush Family Image-Rehab Machine

by Sam Tanenhaus

Compared with Trump the Bushes are stellar.  But they lied too.

Colin Kaepernick and the Myth of the ‘Good’ Protest

by Glenda Gilmore

Rosa Parks was a hero. So were the students who sat in at the Woolworth lunch counters. But they knew that their heroism was possible only because of decades of what Ella Baker called “spade work.”

Violence, Okinawa, and the ‘Pax Americana’

by John Dower

"In a world where belligerence seems to have surrounded us, it takes great courage and creativity to oppose these trends concretely and responsibly. Many outsiders, among whom I certainly include myself, have long admired the peace-loving voices of Okinawa for giving clear and eloquent focus to this challenge."

Roy Moore and the revolution to come

by Kimberly A. Hamlin

Women are rising. Will they be able to create lasting change?

It's absurd to place Al Franken in the same frame as monsters like Harvey Weinstein

by Jonathan Zimmerman

And Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky is in a different category than his alleged rape of Juanita Broaddrick.

The Hidden History of Trump’s First Trip to Moscow

by Luke Harding

In 1987, a young real estate developer traveled to the Soviet Union. The KGB almost certainly made the trip happen.

Do civilizations collapse?

by Guy D Middleton

The idea that the Maya or Easter Islanders experienced an apocalyptic end makes for good television but bad archaeology.

The story of America, as told through diet books

by Adrienne Rose Bitar

Why do we find the stories told by diet books so persuasive?

Roundup Top 10!

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

Roy Moore says he’s a ‘witch hunt’ victim

by Avi Selk

Tell that to thousands of women killed in real ones.

Trump sounds ignorant of history. But racist ideas often masquerade as ignorance.

by Ibram X. Kendi

The White House's fumbling about slavery and the Civil War fits a long pattern in American politics.

A Brief History of Abortion Law in America

by Irin Carmon

It's only become a hot-button issue in recent decades. For America's first century, abortion wasn’t banned in a single US state.

How the GOP uses ‘family values’ to slash taxes

by Molly Michelmore

They're less concerned with morals than with wealth.