political history

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  5/21/2023
  

  Ron DeSantis's Book on the Founders has been Disappearing Online. We Found a Copy

  by Gillian Brockell

  Written during his days as a Tea Party Congressman, DeSantis's 2011 book cherry-picks quotes from the Washington and Hamilton to argue that Barack Obama was engaged in an unconstitutional power grab that would have appalled the founders. It also makes bad arguments about the centrality of slavery to the early Republic. 

• 
• SOURCE: Public Books
  5/17/2023
  

  Two New Books Take the 1990s as a Pivotal Decade

  by Henry M.J. Tonks

  Books by Lily Geismer and Nicole Hemmer look at the changes that took place within the Democratic and Republican parties (respectively) during a decade that was supposed to be the end of history. 

• 
• 5/14/2023
  

  Contemporary Pundits Need a Refresher on Populism's History

  by Steve Babson

  "Elites who tar their critics in the U.S. with the sly pejorative of 'populist' count on our collective amnesia. They’d rather the real Populists remained forgotten, along with the potential they represented."

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  5/4/2023
  

  Gary Gerstle on the End of Neoliberalism and What's Next

  Political "orders," rather than election cycles, are a key way to understand big political shifts, like the rise and dismantling of the New Deal in America. 

• 
• 4/30/2023
  

  Confronting the Roots of American-Style Fascism in One Family's History

  by Julie Carr

  What led Populist Party founder  Omer Madison Kem, the author's great grandfather, on a path from economic radicalism to eugenics? 

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  4/19/2023
  

  The Feinstein Situation Shows the Senate Dems Have No Plan

  by Norman Ornstein

  After 9/11, a joint committee formed by two prominent think tanks studied how the Senate could deal with large-scale incapacitation of Senators through temporary replacements. The COVID pandemic and the aging of the Senators make those recommendations, still unfulfilled, more urgent than ever. 

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  4/17/2023
  

  The Long, Sordid History of Expelling Black Lawmakers

  by David A. Love

  Throughout the reconstruction era (and after) Black lawmakers faced challenges to their legitimacy by proponents of antidemocratic rule by a white elite. 

• 
• SOURCE: Los Angeles Review of Books
  3/30/2023
  

  Review: Will Bunch on the College-No College Divide

  by Johann N. Neem

  A new book argues that making higher education a public good is part of the solution to overcoming the growing split between degreed and undegreed Americans. But is it sufficient to overcome the political expediency of culture-war divisions? 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  3/30/2023
  

  Could One Party Dominate America Again?

  by Michael Kazin

  A party that can offer a compelling explanation for a crisis and move the government to an effective response has a chance to cement its dominance. It's not clear that one will. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Nation
  3/29/2023
  

  David Hollinger on Christianity's Place on the Right—and the Left

  The historian discusses his new book on Christianity in America and the changes that have made the religious more conservative as the society became more secular. 

• 
• SOURCE: Commonweal
  3/28/2023
  

  James Kloppenberg Reviews New Books on Democracy and Polarization

  The eminent political historian reviews books by Timothy Shenk, Michael Kazin, Julian Zelizer, Gary Gerstle, Jefferson Cowie and Sam Rosenfeld that place the current concern with polarization in decades- and centuries-long perspective. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  3/23/2023
  

  New Books Force Consideration of Reconstruction's End from Black Perspective

  Books by Kidada Williams and Mari Crabtree shift attention away from the motives and mentality of white racist terrorists toward the impact on African American cultural, political, and psychological life in the wake of attacks by the Klan and other vigilantes. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Nation
  1/24/2023
  

  Why Can't the Democrats Build a Governing Majority? (Review of Timothy Shenk)

  by Kim Phillips-Fein

  In an implicit response to Richard Hofstadter's finding of the continuity of a narrow "American Political Tradition," Timothy Shenk examines the ways that activists have occasionally disrupted the political order and convinced people to "take a leap into an unknown future."

• 
• SOURCE: Slate
  1/21/2023
  

  Why do Republicans Keep Calling it the "Democrat Party"?

  by Lawrence B. Glickman

  The odd rhetorical device isn't just trolling—it reflects 70 years of the Republican Party seeking to define itself against the opposition even as terms like "liberal" and "conservatism" had not yet taken on stable meaning. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  1/17/2023
  

  Edward Larson Speaks to the New History Wars

  by Jon Meacham

  "To me, Larson’s unemotional account of the Republic’s beginnings confirms a tragic truth: that influential white Americans knew — and understood — that slavery was wrong and liberty was precious, but chose not to act according to that knowledge and that understanding."

• 
• SOURCE: 19th News
  1/12/2023
  

  Anastasia Curwood on New Shirley Chisholm Bio

  By framing Chisholm as a person with a life history, Curwood elevates knowledge of the New York congresswoman from a "first major party candidate" to a political theorist and visionary. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  1/7/2023
  

  Laugh at McCarthy's Travails, but History Shows Chaotic Congress Isn't a Joke

  by Joanne B. Freeman

  Protracted Speakership battles have always reflected moments where factions struggled over power in ways that the party systems of the day couldn't contain. Today, the differences at stake aren't about policy, but power, making the moment particularly dire. 

• 
• SOURCE: Slate
  1/9/2023
  

  New Anthology Mistakes the Roots of the Problem as "Misinformation" Rather than Power

  by Paul M. Renfro and Matthew E. Stanley

  The new "Myth America" offers insight into some recurrent myths about history from some excellent scholars, but it hews too closely to the idea that historical lies are a Trumpian phenomenon, rather than a broader aspect of the pursuit and consolidation of power for MAGA and New Democrats alike. 

• 
• 1/8/2023
  

  The Legacy of Charlene Mitchell: The First Black Woman Presidential Candidate

  by Alyssa Spinosa and Adam Arenson

  Although Charlene Mitchell's candidacy with the Communist Party gained few votes, her campaign reflected an effort to advance a critique of capitalism that addressed the American context of racial inequality and oppression. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Monthly
  12/28/2022
  

  Ted Kennedy Bios Show Liberalism's Trials, and its Necessity

  by David Masciotra

  As liberalism is under attack from the right and from a growing left, the author argues that recent biographies of Ted Kennedy illustrate the imperfections and trials of the idea, but show it's still the best option for organizing a free and fair society.