Books and Ideas

The founding father included a recipe for abortions in The American Instructor, his 1748 reprint of a popular British textbook.

Abortion Has Always Been an American Tradition Abortion Has Always Been an American Tradition

More than one founding father knew that to be truly free, women needed control over their reproduction.

Jun 29, 2026 / Feature / Regina Mahone

The heirs of the Boston Tea Partiers are fighting to block data-center projects.

We Were Founded on Anti-Monopoly Principles 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.

Jun 29, 2026 / Feature / Zephyr Teachout

Hillbilly Algae

Hillbilly Algae Hillbilly Algae

PAC-Men.

Jun 26, 2026 / Steve Brodner

“Activism, it turns out, is the antidote to despair,” writes Jane Fonda, seen here at an anti-Vietnam War protest in 1970.

Jane Fonda: My Life of Protest Jane Fonda: My Life of Protest

What I’ve learned about America from six decades in the struggle.

Jun 26, 2026 / Feature / Jane Fonda

A Bicentennial celebration on July 4, 1976, in San Francisco. The author had arrived in the US the year before as a refugee.

American Dream, American Nightmare American Dream, American Nightmare

This nation’s DNA is a double helix of beauty and brutality.

Jun 26, 2026 / Feature / Viet Thanh Nguyen

From the late 19th century to 1920, there were at least 100,000 Syrian immigrants who came to the United States.

Arab Americans Have Always Been Here Arab Americans Have Always Been Here

The story of my people, and my country.

Jun 25, 2026 / Feature / James Zogby

The boarding schools Native children were sent to, like this one in Ohio, were little more than brutal detainment camps.

250 Years of Genocide, Theft, and Displacement 250 Years of Genocide, Theft, and Displacement

Natives have nothing to celebrate as the United States stages another sick-making festival of self-congratulation.

Jun 24, 2026 / Feature / Simon Moya-Smith

The Declaration’s catalog of grievances against King George III sound like Donald Trump’s to-do list.

The Celebration of the Nation's Birth Is Still a Sham 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.

Jun 24, 2026 / Feature / Madiba K. Dennie

JD Vance at a 2024 campaign stop in Milwaukee.

JD Vance’s Latest Memoir Preaches to the MAGA Choir JD Vance’s Latest Memoir Preaches to the MAGA Choir

The vice president claims to have reached a new level of spiritual maturity, but the evidence is nowhere in the pages of Communion.

Jun 23, 2026 / Elizabeth Spiers

Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court justice, is as important in shaping of the Constiution as its framers.

America Is Due a Third Reconstruction 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.

Jun 23, 2026 / Feature / Michele Goodwin

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