History

A scene from the film

The Radical Texas War Against the “Devil’s Rope” The Radical Texas War Against the “Devil’s Rope”

An excerpt from the new book The Myth of Red Texas.

Mar 24, 2026 / David Griscom

August Macke, “Vegetable Fields,” 1895.

The Hidden History of Free Choice The Hidden History of Free Choice

A conversation with Sophia Rosenfeld about her recent book on the roots of the concept of choice.

Mar 18, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins

The construction of the Knickerbocker Village housing development in 1933.

Mary K. Simkhovitch and the Dream of an Affordable New York Mary K. Simkhovitch and the Dream of an Affordable New York

A new book revisits the public housing programs of the 1930s.

Mar 16, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Joshua Freeman

Kwame Nkrumah and other leaders of non-aligned countries in 1960.

The Global Politics of Kwame Nkrumah The Global Politics of Kwame Nkrumah

Through Nkrumah’s story, Howard French charts the history of African decolonization and the American civil rights movement.

Mar 10, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Adom Getachew

George Packer’s Liberal Imagination

George Packer’s Liberal Imagination George Packer’s Liberal Imagination

What happens when liberalism’s crisis is made into a fable? 

Mar 9, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Bessner

The late Rev. Jesse Jackson.

In Memoriam: the Rev. Jesse Jackson (1941–2026) In Memoriam: the Rev. Jesse Jackson (1941–2026)

The civil-rights activist and founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition changed what’s possible in politics.

Mar 6, 2026 / Obituary / John Nichols

A page taken from the Merriam-Webster's Desktop Dictionary, 2016.

Can the Dictionary Keep Up? Can the Dictionary Keep Up?

In Stefan Fatsis’s capacious, and at times score-settling, personal history of the reference book, he reveals what the dictionary can still tell us about language in modern life

Mar 4, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Lora Kelley

Jesse Jackson, 1983.

Jesse Jackson Reshaped the Democratic Party Jesse Jackson Reshaped the Democratic Party

The candidate may have started as a long-shot contender, but The Nation always took him—and his impact on political history—seriously.

Feb 27, 2026 / Richard Kreitner

Joshua Shaw’s “The Deluge towards Its Close,” 1813.

Do Humans Really Understand the World’s Disorderly Rivers?  Do Humans Really Understand the World’s Disorderly Rivers? 

In James C. Scott’s last book, In Praise of Floods, he questions the limits of human hegemony and our misplaced sense that we have any control over the Earth’s depleted watershed....

Feb 24, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Sherrell

The Long Shadow of the “Jewish Question”

The Long Shadow of the “Jewish Question” The Long Shadow of the “Jewish Question”

After the Holocaust, Israel was hailed as the solution to an essentially antisemitic debate. Now, as another genocide unfolds—in Gaza—Jews are once again questioning the question....

Feb 16, 2026 / Feature / Joseph Dana

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