Nation Topics - History | The Nation

Capes, torches, secret meetings! Adam Goodheart’s 1861 tells the story of the unyielding idealism awakened by the Civil War.

The building of the transcontinental railroads is not the story of a managerial revolution, argues Richard White, but of incompetence and corruption rewarded.

Stephen F. Cohen’s The Victims Return contemplates the return to Soviet society of several million zeks after Stalin’s death.

During the early twentieth century, Alan Lomax and his father John traveled throughout the American South searching for the work songs, spirituals and folk tales that gave the region it's unique identity.

For half a century, Bill Zimmerman has labored for progressive causes as an organizer and political consultant. In a new memoir, he looks back on his career with an unwavering commitment to his beliefs.

Robin Blackburn's The American Crucible treats modern slavery as an international institution with national histories.

Isaac Casaubon was a model citizen of the republic of letters—a community more durable than any church and broader than academia.

A bet on a horse in the 1949 Grand National resulted in the largest collective transfer of wealth ever to communism's stalwarts in Britain.

Maine Governor Paul LePage's secret removal of a mural celebrating the state's labor history is just one in a long line of struggles over publicly-funded depictions of American workers.

For Anatol Lieven, Pakistan is a dangerous, fearsome country, a hard place to live and harder still to govern.