Eric Foner’s Story of American Freedom Eric Foner’s Story of American Freedom
Charting the ironies of freedom won and lost during and after the Civil War, the American historian has also helped us better understand the ambiguous consequences of what were alm...
Dec 2, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Michael Kazin
A Lawsuit at Harvard Pries Open Debates About Science and Reparations A Lawsuit at Harvard Pries Open Debates About Science and Reparations
Since 2011, Tamara Lanier has been battling the university over the ownership of daguerreotypes of her enslaved ancestors. Her fight tells us a lot about the racist roots of Americ...
Nov 28, 2019 / Eamon Whalen
How Should We Remember the Puritans? How Should We Remember the Puritans?
In his new book, Daniel Rodgers not only offers a close reading of Puritan history but also seeks to rescue their early critique of market economy.
Nov 18, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Andrew Delbanco
Secret US Intelligence Files Provide History’s Verdict on Argentina’s Dirty War Secret US Intelligence Files Provide History’s Verdict on Argentina’s Dirty War
Recently declassified documents constitute a gruesome and sadistic catalog of state terrorism.
Nov 18, 2019 / Feature / Peter Kornbluh
How Will Americans Remember Donald Trump? How Will Americans Remember Donald Trump?
If the past is prologue, Trump will face no historical reckoning for his sprawling malfeasance.
Nov 14, 2019 / Column / Aaron Ross Coleman
David Maraniss’s Tale of Hope and Misfortune in Postwar America David Maraniss’s Tale of Hope and Misfortune in Postwar America
In A Good American Family, the journalist and editor examines his father and mother’s youthful idealism and the bitter years of McCarthyism that followed.
Nov 12, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Andrew J. Bacevich
‘The Inheritance’ Takes E.M. Forster Out of the Closet ‘The Inheritance’ Takes E.M. Forster Out of the Closet
Bringing Howards End into today’s gay Manhattan, playwright Matthew Lopez shows that “Only Connect” is still a radical message.
Nov 12, 2019 / Feature / Darryl Pinckney
Did the New Deal Need FDR? Did the New Deal Need FDR?
His political evolution points to a different locus of power than the one liberals tend to invoke when discussing the era’s history.
Nov 11, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Kim Phillips-Fein
Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Narratives of Freedom Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Narratives of Freedom
History has always been a weapon in the hands of Ta-Nehisi Coates. Now, in his debut novel, the social critic and essayist sets out to recover those struggles for emancipation that...
Oct 29, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Elias Rodriques
Jill Lepore’s Liberal Gospel Jill Lepore’s Liberal Gospel
Against a “postmodernism” that she claims suffuses left-wing and right-wing politics, the prolific historian and New Yorker staff writer makes her case for a liberal patriotism and...
Oct 29, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Immerwahr