Roundup

The Myth of a 'Second Gilded Age'

by James Livingston

The late 19th century, supposedly the golden age of laissez-faire capitalism, was actually a nightmare for capitalists.

Why Black History Month should never begin with slavery

by Shaun King

Harriet Tubman is an important part of black history, but her struggle shouldn't be the starting point for enlightening our children.

Flint's toxic water crisis was 50 years in the making

by Andrew R. Highsmith

Structural inequality and environmental degradation are the twin problems today in Flint -- as they have been for more than half a century.

Sanders' Campaign Is American as Apple Pie

by Manisha Sinha

The abolitionists would be proud of him.

The Triumph of the Hard Right

by Garry Wills

A review of E.J. Dionne’s "Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism—from Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond."

American Democracy Down for the Count

by Ann Jones

Or What Is It the Scandinavians Have That We Don’t?

Pushback for Anti-Israel Academics

by Cary Nelson

The American Historical Association recognized that its own credibility was on the line in a recent vote.

Roundup Top 10!

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

The forgotten Confederate general who deserves a monument

by Charles Lane

A James Longstreet Monument would not only help make certain specific points about what really happened in the 19th century, it would also prompt reflection on broader truths.

When College Radicals Obliterate History

by David Davenport and Gordon Lloyd

Liberals are erasing history.  Is George Washington Next? 

Out of Bounds, Off-Limits, or Just Plain Ignored

by Andrew J. Bacevich

Six National Security Questions Hillary, Donald, Ted, Marco, et al., Don’t Want to Answer and Won’t Even Be Asked

So Hillary believes in the discredited Southern Lost Cause theory? Ridiculous.

by Harold Holzer

Her remark that had Lincoln lived the horrors of post-war Reconstruction might have been mitigated doesn't make her an enemy of Reconstruction. 

Piping as poison: the Flint water crisis and America’s toxic infrastructure

by Chris Sellers

An estimated three to six million miles of lead pipes across our country still carry water, and most all of them are vulnerable to similar dangers.

What Ted Cruz Doesn’t Know About Ronald Reagan

by John Nichols

Reagan was a liberal Democrat who decried wrongheaded Republicans before he became the conservative hero of wrongheaded Republicans.

Reagan as History

by Kiron K. Skinner

Can any one biography do justice to the life and accomplishments of America’s fortieth President?

Tahrir 5 Years Later

by Juan Cole

The Hurdles to Democratization & Arab Youth Revolts

Video of the Week: Reporting on the Times, The New York Times and the Holocaust

Of more than 23,000 front-page articles between 1939 and 1945, just 26 were about the Holocaust.

The collection of data in presidential politics began in 1896 with the Bryan campaign

by Jody Avirgan

A short history of data collection from Bryan to Obama

The threat Cruz and Trump pose to the GOP establishment

by Ryan Lizza

First the party bosses selected candidates. Then candidates self-selected. Then the party took back control in the invisible primary. And now? The outsiders are riding high.

The Jew Who Silenced America’s Earliest Anti-Semites

by Gil Troy

Americans besieged by today’s hateful rhetoric would be wise to look up Jacob Henry, whose seminal defense of his own faith—and others’—was once memorized by schoolchildren everywhere.