On “The Nation” and Empire
Our magazine has refused to accept what contributor Gore Vidal once described as the “cozy unremitting war” that puts this country in a state of conflict, year after year.
Print Magazine
July-August, 2026 Issue
Cover art by Victor Juhasz
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Editorial
Tom Paine’s Fight
The pamphleteer’s insistence that America live up to its revolutionary vows still rings true 250 years later.
Can America Experience a New Birth of Freedom?
Five progressive leaders offer a powerful reminder of the country's unfinished journey.
Subscribers Only Amy Goodman on the Job of Journalism
A conversation with the veteran broadcaster on threats to press freedom—and what the press is really for.
Subscribers Only Sonny Rollins Lived to See Justice for His Wrongly Convicted Father
The jazz legend fought for nearly 80 years to clear his father of racially motivated charges.
Subscribers Only The Bald Eagle Perfectly Embodies America's Flaws
Our national bird isn’t what we believe it to be—but it is the perfect bird for an imperfect country.
Letitia James: We Cannot Afford to Abandon the Voting Rights Act
The Supreme Court’s decision is a cruel blow to our democracy. But our efforts to ensure that every American has the representation and resources they deserve will not stop.
Column
Subscribers Only Bernie Sanders’s Revolution
The senator may be remembered as a bridge between the promise of America and the fulfillment of that promise.
Feature
Subscribers Only Special Issue: America at 250
The debate over our national experiment is as old as the country, and as new as this issue of The Nation.
Subscribers Only America Is Due for a Deep Clean
This country cannot deliver on its promises until we collectively act to to ensure equal protection for all.
Subscribers Only Separation of Church and State: America’s Best Idea
Christian nationalists keep forgetting what the country’s founders kept writing down.
Subscribers Only Alexander Hamilton, the Wrong Founder
Dismantling the cult of personality created around the founding era's plutocratic foe of democracy.
Subscribers Only We Must Restore Congress as the Predominant Branch of Government
The promise of democratic governance was stolen from the people. We must win it back.
Subscribers Only We Can Still Realize FDR’s Vision
Roosevelt understood that freedom that extends from economic security.
Subscribers Only Lessons From the People’s Historian, Howard Zinn
His take on history arms youth with the courage to “transform the world.” It’s no wonder the right aims to erase it.
Subscribers Only The American Revolution’s Long Tail
Throughout US history, social movements—from reformist to radical—have returned to the language and ideals of 1776.
Subscribers Only The Constitution’s Other Giant Failure
If we’re going to make it another 250 years, the Constitution is going to have to move beyond preserving political and civil rights to protecting economic and social rights.
Subscribers Only America Is Due a Third Reconstruction
The nation can thank the Supreme Court for its periods of turmoil. It’s time for a new jurisprudence.
Subscribers Only The Celebration of the Nation's Birth Is Still a Sham
If America must observe its 250th anniversary, let it be by taking stock of Reconstruction’s unfinished mission.
Subscribers Only 250 Years of Genocide, Theft, and Displacement
Natives have nothing to celebrate as the United States stages another sick-making festival of self-congratulation.
Subscribers Only How I Became an American
My path to US citizenship was a long and difficult one.
Subscribers Only Arab Americans Have Always Been Here
The story of my people, and my country.
Subscribers Only Jane Fonda: My Life of Protest
What I’ve learned about America from six decades in the struggle.
Subscribers Only American Dream, American Nightmare
This nation’s DNA is a double helix of beauty and brutality.
Subscribers Only Shame
Subscribers Only We Were Founded on Anti-Monopoly Principles
The premises of the American democratic vision must be applied to the economy if we are to be free in all alreas of life.
Subscribers Only How America Became the Progenitor of Environmentalism
From Indigenous practices to the Green New Deal, our country has always focused on prioritizing our planet.
Subscribers Only Abortion Has Always Been an American Tradition
More than one founding father knew that to be truly free, women needed control over their reproduction.
Subscribers Only What Is the American Economy?
The gap between what the numbers say and how people are feeling has only grown wider.
Subscribers Only How to Win the Next 250 Years for the Working Class
It begins with building back a strong union movement
rooted in deep solidarity.
Subscribers Only What Makes American Architecture American?
It’s never been afraid to play fast and loose and big.
Books & the Arts
The Centuries-Long Struggle to Make the Constitution Equal for All
The effort to transform the United States’ founding document into a vehicle for egalitarian politics.
Subscribers Only The Contradictions of 1776
From the outset the United States was founded to protect both freedom and slavery.
Subscribers Only The Entwined History of Capitalism and Race in the Americas and Beyond
Better to start the history of the United States in 1492 than in 1776.
Subscribers Only The Art of the American Revolution Across the Generations
The United States’ founding moment from Washington Crossing the Delaware to the paintings of Jacob Lawrence, Kara Walker, and Kent Monkman.
