The author of a new history of the Israel-Palestine conflict argues that a myth of national innocence crafted by Israel and embraced by the United States impedes pragmatic compromise and costs lives through ongoing violence.
Trump's encouragement of a nostalgic, pseudohistorical understanding of the past thwarts both the hope for betterment and the determined realism Americans need at this moment.
"Churchill was the apotheosis of the historically-minded statesman, committed to the idea of history as progress in which the role of great men was to suppress ordinary moral compunctions about destructive events that forwarded it."
We must commend those who stood on line and stood up for democracy. That these people waited and then voted means that as a people we are still on track in preserving the Republic and what we contend, despite attacks on its value, it still stands for.
If there is to be a healthy conservative presence in the Republican Party and the American political system, supporters and enablers of Donald Trump's abuses will need to be cleared out.
The degree of anger, anxiety and agitation accompanying the presidential campaigns are signs we've failed to heed some important insights from a key observer of American democracy.
Donald Trump apparently does not believe in the concept of "bad publicity," which removes a major set of incentives for him to follow the lead of previous losers of bitter elections and exit the scene quietly.
The Nobel Prize Commiteee has departed from Alfred Nobel's wishes to honor the cause of global demilitarization and disarmament in favor of statements of political favor in the awarding of the Peace Prize.
As a historian, I see recent attacks on indigenous Americans and intrusions on tribal lands as part of a lengthy tradition of violence. But this year has witnessed a surge in apologetics for colonial violence in history that give support to present-day harm.
The Republicans' choice to push through Amy Coney Barrett's nomination with the backing of a minority of the country means a new Congress must consider corrective action in the name of justice and democracy.
A scholar of presidential politics suggests that a first Biden term is more likely than a second Trump term to achieve sweeping change through the political process, though it's far from certain Biden seeks a transformative presidency.
by Meredith Martin, Gillian Weiss and Bonnie Siegler
Inspired by the Sun King’s detractors, the White House Gift Shop’s self-parodying statements, and Trump’s own Superman fantasies, we offer a medal honoring the Super Spreader.
The latest encyclical by Pope Francis, calling for recognition of the unity of humanity, echoes the egalitarian humanism of the poet and writer Carl Sandburg.
Queen Elizabeth's speech to English soliders in anticipation of the Spanish invasion of 1588 rallied the troops for a battle that never happened. But it anticipated today's cultural battle over the stability of gender categories.
Mark Burnett's reality TV empire has championed individualism and the myth of the entrepreneurial genius while reviving the celebrity and launching the political career of Donald Trump. Is 2020 the end of the line for both?
Franklin Roosevelt's error in 1937 was not to propose expanding the court, it was to fail to explain and defend his popular political reasons for doing so.
If, as the abolitionist Theodore Parker wrote, “the arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice,” then why bother to hasten its arrival? Those who don’t believe that history will guarantee a better future will act to bring a different future into being.
