Roundup

Without Obama There Would Be No Trump

by Nell Irvin Painter

When white people feel challenged, the response is bigotry. History shows this. 

Is the U.S. Due for Radically Raising Taxes for the Rich?

by Alana Semuels

That’s what has usually happened whenever a large proportion of Americans have been upset with the distribution of their country’s wealth.

Postscript to “Is Donald Trump a Fascist?”

by Jeffrey Herf

Trump understands what the classic demagogues of the 20th century understood: namely, that in a democracy it is possible to gain millions of votes by appealing to the worst in people.

The Urban-Rural Divide: Deep Roots In American History

by Daniel Blake Smith

Anyone observing America’s ongoing culture wars, especially as they surface in the current presidential election cycle, is forcefully reminded that we are not a country divided by red and blue states; it’s an urban-rural divide that represents the political and cultural fault lines in the nation.

Can Clinton or Trump Recapture Robust American Growth?

by Robert J. Gordon

Voters expect a president to improve their lives, but the cause of anxiety follows trends that are decades in the making.

Donald Trump's biggest weakness

by Julian Zelizer

Donald Trump has a temperament problem.

Echoes of history in U.S. refugee policy

by Bruce W. Dearstyne

Ambivalence about helping people in danger resembles earlier era.

August is bloody and dangerous, but rarely "silly"

by Andrew Roberts

The astonishing thing is that August was ever considered silly in the first place, since year after year it has been the month when great and often terrible events have taken place.

Jill Stein’s Skewed Interpretation of Recent American History

by Heather Munro Prescott

Stein claims that public pressure pushed the Supreme Court to legalize abortion.  She's wrong. 

Why We Ask to See Candidates’ Tax Returns

by Mitchell Zuckoff

It’s because of President Nixon, who did turn out to be a “crook.”

Back to the Future: Can Trump Win with Law and Order Like Nixon in 1968?

by Michael W. Flamm

Republican Richard M. Nixon narrowly managed to win the 1968 presidential election by exploiting the issue of law and order amid a climate of fear and insecurity.

Donald “Dr. Strangelove” Trump and some of the Times We almost had a Nuclear War

by Juan Cole

There is always a danger that if a weapon is in the arsenal, it will be deployed. If the leader of a country is reckless or addled, then all bets are off.

The Decay of American Politics

by Andrew J. Bacevich

An Ode to Ike and Adlai

Roundup Top 10!

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

Video of the Week: Presidential Heads

by Scott Rensberger

What are dozens of presidential statues doing in a field in Virginia? They were found in the trash. Say what?

On Trade, Our Choices Aren’t Only Xenophobic Nationalism Or Neoliberal Globalization

by Leon Fink

Along with immigration, “free trade” is now the foremost symbol of a supposed either/or choice between globalism and nationalism.

In the Information Age, why do Americans ignore facts during elections?

by James W. Cortada

When looking at the historical record of how Americans used information over the past two hundred years, the area in which they most did not use hard facts involved elections.

How much have the Olympics really changed since ancient times?

by Jason König

Most people probably have a sense of how the ancient games formed a template for the modern Olympics, but when you dig into the detail of the ancient sources you start to see that things are not so simple.

Stunning Facts You Don’t Want to Miss

This Edition:  Racism, women in power, crime myths, veeps, and more! 

Pop Culture Roundup: This Week

This week ... JFK Jr., Matt Damon saves ancient China, the artist who challenged Hitler, Ken Burns's new documentary, and lots more!