History
Confederates in the Capitol
The National Statuary Collection announced the unification of the former slave economy’s emotional heartland with the heart of national government.
The Shape of Epidemics
Epidemic waves serve not just to predict but also to persuade. Their special blend of mathematical and moral messaging will shape the future of the pandemic.
Policing the World
The link between modern policing and the U.S. national security state means they will have to be democratized together.
The Unfinished Project of Enlightenment
What Jürgen Habermas’s sweeping history of Western philosophy leaves out.
Protest, Passion, Politics
The reissue of Vivian Gornick’s The Romance of American Communism invites a new generation to reflect on what it means to live a life of political commitment.
The Struggle to Abolish the Police Is Not New
Prison and police abolition were key to the thinking of many midcentury civil rights activists.
Black History in Three Acts
The story of how black people confront systems of racial capitalism and plot world liberation. A reading list from Robin D. G. Kelley.
The Minneapolis Uprising in Context
A proper understanding of urban rebellion depends on our ability to interpret it not as a wave of criminality, but as political violence.
The Murderous Legacy of Cold War Anticommunism
How the Washington-backed Indonesian mass killings of 1965 reshaped global politics, securing a decisive victory for U.S. interests against Third World self-determination.
Identity Politics and Elite Capture
The wealthy and powerful will take every opportunity to hijack activist energies for their own ends.
What Would Boccaccio Say About COVID-19?
The Florentine humanist’s description of the Black Death in the Decameron remains one of the most thoughtful accounts of a society living under a pandemic.
COVID-19 and the Revival of the “Welfare Queen” Myth
Conservatives have long been sounding the alarm about “undeserving” people receiving public assistance.
Dying in Jerusalem
The city is running out of graves, and against the backdrop of the Israel–Palestine conflict, burial is often a political matter.
New Pathogen, Old Politics
We should be wary of simplistic uses of history, but we can learn from the logic of social responses.
Love One Another or Die
During the AIDS crisis, different contingents of the LGBTQ movement set aside their differences to prioritize mutual care.
Meet the Bailout’s New Slush Fund
The battle over the bailout—set to be delivered through a once-obscure Treasury Department mechanism called the Exchange Stabilization Fund—has only just begun.
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