History

Black and white photo of pallbearers carrying the coffin of Robert Kennedy

The Other Kennedy Curse The Other Kennedy Curse

Kennedy family mythology is bad history, bad politics—and perhaps as unfair to the living Kennedys as to anyone else.

Jul 11, 2023 / Column / Jeet Heer

Elliott Abrams looking pensive

Henry Kissinger, Elliott Abrams, and the Rot of American Foreign Policy Henry Kissinger, Elliott Abrams, and the Rot of American Foreign Policy

Our bipartisan elite is always willing to forgive war crimes by its made men.

Jul 7, 2023 / Jeet Heer

1968 Olympian Dr. John Carlos on the Legacy of the Black Athletic Revolt

1968 Olympian Dr. John Carlos on the Legacy of the Black Athletic Revolt 1968 Olympian Dr. John Carlos on the Legacy of the Black Athletic Revolt

On this episode of The Edge of Sports, Dr. John Carlos joins the show to reflect.

Jul 6, 2023 / Podcast / Dave Zirin

Mario Vargas Llosa, London, 1986.

The Miseducation of Mario Vargas Llosa The Miseducation of Mario Vargas Llosa

A recent collection, The Call of the Tribe, explains why the Peruvian writer rejected the left and embraced the thinking of Friedrich Hayek and his ilk.

Jul 5, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Jack Hanson

Scene from History of the World Part I

Our Supreme Court Reactionaries Still Fear the French Revolution Our Supreme Court Reactionaries Still Fear the French Revolution

In John Roberts’s America, it’s good to be the king.

Jul 3, 2023 / Jeet Heer

The Long and Sometimes Lost History of Trans

The Long and Sometimes Lost History of Trans The Long and Sometimes Lost History of Trans

To borrow a phrase from the photographer and activist Samra Habib, “We have always been here”—or, at least, people somewhat like us have always been here.

Jun 28, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Stephanie Burt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt at his inauguration in 1933.

When FDR Took On the Supreme Court When FDR Took On the Supreme Court

The standard narrative of Roosevelt's court-packing efforts casts them as a failure. But what if they were a success?

Jun 27, 2023 / Books & the Arts / John Fabian Witt

How the Supreme Court Got This Powerful

How the Supreme Court Got This Powerful How the Supreme Court Got This Powerful

It goes all the way back to Marbury v. Madison.

Jun 27, 2023 / Stan Mack

The Atacama desert, 2022.

Nona Fernandez and the Black Hole of Collective Memory Nona Fernandez and the Black Hole of Collective Memory

Her book-length essay Voyager examines life after Pinochet—and the disjunctures in public remembering the era produced—through an exploration of the stars. 

Jun 22, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Amanda Paige Inman

Jesse Hagopian, his father, and his brother in Morgantown, Miss.

Celebrating Juneteenth by Emancipating History Celebrating Juneteenth by Emancipating History

A Black family’s pilgrimage to Mississippi.

Jun 19, 2023 / Jesse Hagopian

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