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History News Network

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Roundup Top 10!


The right lesson of Watergate: Forget facile Trump-Nixon parallels — and get the damn evidence

by Rick Perlstein

The evidence is out there. It's in the phones, or to be more precise whatever servers store the transcripts of their conversations.


Can Anyone Be Truly ‘Independent’ In Today’s Polarized Politics?

by Beverly Gage

Today many Americans approach the notion of professional, nonpartisan expertise with suspicion, seeing it as mere cover for elite interests, bureaucratic self-preservation or partisan agendas.


What Roger Ailes Learned From Richard Nixon

by David Greenberg

The mastermind of Fox News played on the cultural resentment he learned working for the Nixon White House.


What Lincoln Thought of “America First”

by Sidney Blumenthal

Though he never traveled outside the US, Lincoln embraced an international perspective, celebrating the spread of freedom in Europe.


Why It Was Once Unthinkable for the President to Be Seen With the Pope

by David Mislin

It was unthinkable because for a century and more millions of American Protestants believed that Catholic politicians would be beholden to the Pope.


Why Donald Trump's 'Arab Nato' would be a terrible mistake

by Rashid Khalidi

This planned Sunni coalition would alienate Shia populations and Iran. How can it be in the national interest of the US to support one side in a sectarian conflict?


Trump's Saudi Speech: Pretty Good

by Daniel Pipes

It's a mixed performance, but overall positive.


Trump in Absolute Monarchy during Iran’s Election

by Juan Cole

The day the Iranian public bucked the country’s Leader and the other hard liners and put centrist President Hassan Rouhani back in for a second term, the US president was feted with gold metals in an absolute monarchy.


The Single Greatest Witch Hunt in American History, for Real

by Stacy Schiff

Wild accusations, alternative facts, special prosecutors—the Salem witch trials of 1692 had it all.


Comey isn’t the first FBI director to keep memos on a president

by Douglas M. Charles

The FBI’s history shows such documentation can be essential to how FBI directors operate, and how they can insulate or protect the FBI’s integrity.