political history

• 
• 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.

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  12/19/2022
  

  Albion Tourgée's Forgotten Proposal for Power to the People

  by Brook Thomas

  The Black Republican activist hoped to draft a Reconstruction constitution for North Carolina that vested power in the people, which might have prevented the potential mischief that could be unleashed by Supreme Court cases that threaten to empower state legislatures to thwart democracy. 

• 
• SOURCE: Religion Dispatches
  12/12/2022
  

  Why Can't the US Press Name the Bad Faith in Evangelical Politics?

  by John Stoehr

  Head-scratching accounts of "conflicted" evangelicals voting again and again for manifestly ungodly candidates would vanish if the media consulted (or hired) ex-evangelicals, who would explain the movement seeks power, not piety. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Nation
  12/13/2022
  

  How the "Third Way" Made Neoliberal Politics Seem Inevitable

  by Lily Geismer

  The Third Way never presented a coherent case for what it stood for or how it might balance the roles of the market and the state. But it led to a generational reworking of the role if government and a sidelining of mass political movements. 

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  12/9/2022
  

  Will Gen Z Realize the Dormant Promise of the Youth Vote?

  by Alison Gash and Daniel J. Tichenor

  Gen Z appears to be connecting the dots between their political demands on climate, gun control, and education, among other issues, and the need to mobilize voters to compel attention from elected officials. 

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  12/5/2022
  

  The GOP Once Supported the Youth Vote

  by Jennifer Frost

  Once Republicans championed opening the franchise to 18 year-olds. Today, it seems the party is unwilling to win those votes and would prefer to restrict them. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  11/25/2022
  

  Are Elite Conservatives Getting Too Weird to Win?

  by Graham Gallagher

  The right's move toward European nationalism, conservative Catholicism, and other departures from domestic conservative tradition are troubling to scholars of reactionary politics. But they might just seem weird to voters. 

• 
• SOURCE: Boston Review
  11/21/2022
  

  Robin Kelley: Fascism Doesn't End Because People "Come to Their Senses"

  The historian discusses the ongoing threat of the antidemocratic far right, despite the failure of the "red wave" in the midterms, abetted by the willingness of many Democrats to cave to panics about crime. 

• 
• SOURCE: TIME
  11/12/2022
  

  Where the Red Wave that Wasn't Fits in the History of Elections

  by Olivia B. Waxman

  Political scientists find that the prediction of a wave election failed for a number of reasons. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  11/7/2022
  

  Whatever the Result on Tuesday, Don't Expect the GOP to Go "Back to Normal"

  by Cas Mudde

  It's become clear that, win or lose, the hard right and conspiracy theorists are too prominent in the Republican base for the party to stop catering to them. 

• 
• 11/8/2022
  

  Doug Mastriano's Political Mad Libs

  by Judith Giesberg and Paul Steege

  "Ultimately, if American political movements decide to mimic Nazis, we should take them at their word."

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  10/26/2022
  

  Campaign Signs Blight the Landscape this Month: Do They Work?

  by Karen Adams

  Political signs don't do much to sway voters, but in close races they're a low-cost way to make a small and potentially decisive difference. 

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  10/18/2022
  

  The GOP Agenda Probably Won't Influence Midterms – the "Contract with America" Didn't

  by Robert Fleegler

  Long-simmering trends and anti-incumbent sentiment gave Republican House candidates a strong tailwind in 1994; the Contract with America policy agenda became an explanation after the fact, but was seldom referenced in the campaign.