Letters From the April 2025 Issue Letters From the April 2025 Issue
Come gather ’round, people… Constitutional machinations… Executive removal (online only)…
Mar 11, 2025 / Our Readers and Eric Foner
America Has Done Mass Deportation Before America Has Done Mass Deportation Before
From the Indian Removal Act of 1830 to the deportation of Mexican Americans during the Great Depression, Trump can easily find precedents for his policy. None of them ended well.
Nov 25, 2024 / Eric Foner
Martin Luther King’s Dream at 60 Martin Luther King’s Dream at 60
King offered Americans the choice between acting in accordance with the constitution and resistance—often violent—to change. In many ways, we face the same choice today.
Aug 28, 2023 / Eric Foner
The Crusade Against Civil Liberties During World War I The Crusade Against Civil Liberties During World War I
Adam Hochschild’s latest book, American Midnight, examines a dark era in US history in which Woodrow Wilson and his administration went to war at home as well as abroad.
Feb 7, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Eric Foner
The Many American Revolutions The Many American Revolutions
Woody Holton’s Liberty is Sweet charts not only the contest with Great Britain over “home rule” but also the internal struggle over who should rule at home.
Apr 4, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Eric Foner
The Gilded Age’s Democratic Contradictions The Gilded Age’s Democratic Contradictions
A new history examines how the late 19th century’s raucous party system gave way to a more sedate and exclusionary political culture that erected more and more barriers to particip...
Jun 1, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Eric Foner
The Capitol Riot Reveals the Dangers From the Enemy Within The Capitol Riot Reveals the Dangers From the Enemy Within
But the belief that America previously had a well-functioning democracy is an illusion.
Jan 8, 2021 / Eric Foner
The Making of the Radical Republicans The Making of the Radical Republicans
How did the struggle for emancipation become a mass politics?
May 5, 2020 / Books & the Arts / Eric Foner
The Vexed Meaning of Equality in Gilded Age America The Vexed Meaning of Equality in Gilded Age America
The agrarian, feminist, and labor movements of the 19th century elevated equality to a cardinal principle, but all three fell short when it came to transcending the divide of...
Sep 24, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Eric Foner
The Supreme Court Is in Danger of Again Becoming ‘the Grave of Liberty’ The Supreme Court Is in Danger of Again Becoming ‘the Grave of Liberty’
Supreme Court decisions have practical consequences, which justices too often blithely ignore.
Jul 1, 2019 / Eric Foner