political history

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/19/2022
  

  Conservative Matthew Continetti Says GOP Must Dump Trump. Does History Show they Can (or Want To)?

  Concern about whether the Republicans can adopt a post-Trump conservatism reflects a long history of elite conservatism embracing and mobilizing demagogic populism. 

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• SOURCE: The Nation
  4/20/2022
  

  Lily Geismer: The Clinton Legacy is Well-Intentioned Failure

  "I wanted to challenge the common view that the story of US politics after 1968 is solely about the rise of the right, and that the Democrats adopted the policies that they did as a way of playing electoral defense."

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• SOURCE: Politico
  4/19/2022
  

  Can the Dems Learn Anything from Orwell?

  Are the Democrats trying to bridge a cultural chasm between themselves and the mass of voters they hope to persuade? Orwell's writing suggests so. 

• 
• SOURCE: Slate
  4/12/2022
  

  New Trump Book Shows Promise, Peril of Writing Very Recent History

  by Paul M. Renfro

  The Presidency of Donald J. Trump is an ambitious and compelling book, one that covers a great deal of territory, but sometimes is hindered by the ongoing tendency of its subject to focus on himself, says historian Paul Renfro.

• 
• SOURCE: The Nation
  4/13/2022
  

  Gary Gerstle: Is the Neoliberal Era Over?

  "Will new political movements emerge with the strength to compel a serious redistribution of wealth away from elites and toward the masses without reproducing the tyranny that became so intrinsic to communism? This is one of the key questions of our time."

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• SOURCE: National History Center and Woodrow Wilson Center
  4/11/2022
  

  TODAY: The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era

  Today, Gary Gerstle discusses the fall of the neoliberal political order in a discussion with Lizabeth Cohen and Kristina Spohr as part of the National History Center's Washington History Seminar. 

• 
• 4/10/2022
  

  The Erosion of the Concept of Legitimate Opposition Undercuts Democracy

  by Jeff Kolnick

  The rising tendency to see partisan opponents as enemies of the nation justifies action to weaken democracy. 

• 
• SOURCE: Black Perspectives
  3/22/2022
  

  Black Mayors, Black Politics, and the Gary Convention

  by Brandon Stokes

  The National Black Political Convention of 1972 demonstrated that Black political power had been linked to urban governments, foreshadowing challenges of disinvestment, white flight, and exclusion from broader coalitions in national politics. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  3/18/2022
  

  Review: Lily Geismer's Denunciation of Clintonism Ignores Clear Economic Improvement

  by David Greenberg

  Historian Lily Geismer's book is meant as a sharp criticism of Clintonian economic policy, but ignores the broad range of policies and the record of reduced poverty, says one reviewer. 

• 
• 3/13/2022
  

  Richard Nixon Made one of the Most Successful Political Comebacks in History. Trump Ignores His Playbook

  by Donne Levy

  Donald Trump is departing in multiple ways from the comeback strategy of Richard Nixon. Is this a political mistake, or a reflection of a different Republican Party and a different age of politics? 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  2/15/2022
  

  Michael Kazin Asks: What Defines the Democratic Party?

  by Sam Rosenfield

  Kazin's new history of the Democrats examines broad ideas of economic fairness that resonate with the party's faithful, but also the pattern of lurching compromise and triangulation that frustrates its progressive critics. 

• 
• SOURCE: Dissent
  2/9/2021
  

  Focus on the Family? The Problems with Blaming GOP Radicalism on Family Business

  by Paul Heideman

  Is the rise of the privately-held megacorporation the root of the radical conservative movement, or has corporate America long had a right-wing fringe? 

• 
• SOURCE: TIME
  2/7/2022
  

  The Legacy of the Black Elected Officials of Reconstruction

  by Olivia B. Waxman and Arpita Aneja

  The Supreme Court's decision to reject a challenge to Alabama's political districting map calls to mind the often violent politics that overthrew Reconstruction; the brief period when Black southerners elected their fellows to represent them stands as an example of what multiracial democracy means in practice.

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  1/27/2022
  

  Manchin's Self-Proclaimed "Principled" Acts Mean Shunning His Constituents

  by Ashley Steenson

  Joe Manchin's torpedoing of the Build Back Better legislation reflects a historically prominent principle, though maybe not one the Senator would like to acknowledge: contempt for most of his constituents.

• 
• SOURCE: The Metropole
  1/24/2022
  

  The Role of Liberals in the Neoliberal Turn

  by Claire Dunning

  Benjamin Holtzman's new book asks readers to reconsider the role of local community organizations and their liberal allies in creating the turn to market processes and entrepreneurial social programs associated with neoliberal urban policy. 

• 
• SOURCE: Jacobin
  1/25/2022
  

  Historian Harvey Kaye: Biden has Never Wanted to be FDR

  Entering office in 1933, Franklin Roosevelt was confident that mass social movements would build support for systemic political and economic change. Joe Biden does not seem to be drawing similar lessons from social protest today. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  1/18/2022
  

  If Latinos are the Key to 2024, Democrats Should Be Worried

  by Geraldo Cadava

  "I dream of vigorous town hall-style debates where both parties engage in arguments over whose policies are best, instead of hurling talking points in our general direction from a distance."

• 
• SOURCE: Dissent
  1/11/2022
  

  Family Capitalism and the Small Business Insurrection

  by Melinda Cooper

  Trumpism's base includes significant leadership and financial support from a faction of capitalists who own and lead private companies and shun many of the concessions made by publicly-traded corporations toward liberalism. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Nation
  1/11/2022
  

  Ultras: The Rise of America's Far Right (Review)

  by Kim Phillips-Fein

  Kim Phillips-Fein reviews John Huntington's "Far-Right Vanguard," calling his history of the far right a needed reminder of the porousness of boundaries between the right-wing fringe and mainstream conservatism in the 20th century. 

• 
• SOURCE: Jacobin
  1/11/2022
  

  France's Socialists Adopted Neoliberalism and Punched their Tickets to Irrelevance

  "What was the history that brought the French left to its current state of crisis, and does it show what other countries are going to experience in the future?"