The history of ethnic studies as an academic movement is a cycle of rise and retrenchment; protest movements often push for more representative curricula, while forces of tradition and austerity seek to uphold a canon or push majors linked directly to the job market. Today's protest movements are pushing an ethnic studies renaissance despite the dire financial straits of many colleges and students.
Voters in November may reverse California's constitutional ban on affirmative action, which was passed by ballot measure in 1996. The state's electorate has changed considerably in a quarter century and passage seems likely.
The ink was hardly dry on Lee's surrender at Appomattox before Andrew Johnson's conciliation toward the former Confederacy clashed with the unfulfilled goals of freed slaves and radical Republicans to threaten further violence. These fault lines have been hidden but never healed in the restored American union.
Roberto Lovato's new book "Unforgetting: " examines how policing in the United States, including a combined crackdown on immigration and gang activity led by William Barr after the 1992 Los Angeles riots, helped create MS-13 as a transnational criminal gang and a political symbol of fear to be exploited in election years.
In the conclusion of his two-part analysis of William Barr's actions as Attorney General, former prosecutor James Zirin argues that Barr has hitched his office completely to the Trump Train.
It's necessary to go back to the time of the Great Depression, rationing and wartime austerity to see a generational experience like that of Gen Z. Will this formative time lead to a future of political consensus and social solidarity?
The COVID-19 pandemic shows that American political culture has embraced individualism at the expense of our ability to imagine and act for the common good.
Former federal prosecutor James Zirin begins a two-part assessment of William Barr's tenure as Attorney General by explaining how the job was created and how its powers and duties were defined.
Supreme Court decisions based on text without context have been responsible for some of the greatest perversions of justice in United States history, mostly around denying the scope of authority the 14th Amendment grants to the government to enforce civil equality.
In a rush to dunk on Joy Behar for being clueless about George Washington's practices as a slaveowner, John Oliver flattened the story himself; reading Mary V. Thompson's book would help everyone speak with more authority.
Despite boasting of his accomplishments for working Americans, Trump's record amounts to more of the same: union busting, stagnant wages, unsafe workplaces, long hours, no vacation time, and even child labor.
The dedication in 1886 of a monument to the Maryland 2nd Confederate Regiment at Gettysburg launched the movement by southern partisans to lay claim to the site of the Union victory as a monument to national reconciliation. The Grand Army of the Republic organization wasn't buying it then, and we shouldn't today.
The late Congressman John Lewis and Donald Trump offer two starkly divergent versions of the American Dream--a choice between nurturing community and freedom and acquisitive materialism.
One thing that John Adams never did was to voice a word of regret about leaving the presidency at his term’s end. None of his successors has ever violated or dishonored the precedent he established. And, if we are fortunate, none ever will.
The behavior of belligerent patriots in our times has made it clear that the type of allegiance they value most--and their image of America--leaves little room for an ethic of mutualism or compassion.
A comparison between Trump and Charles I of England suggests not only that the coming election will be rocky, but that it may take a long time to bridge the divisions in American society.
The Trump presidency is a stern test of James Madison's design for a government that could govern without becoming tyrannical. The people and the ballot may be the last of Madison's checks and balances left.
Franklin Roosevelt recognized that the concentrated economic power of big businesses was a threat to democratic society and a step on the road to fascism, and wasn't afraid to say it.
