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History News Network

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Roundup Top 10!


Rocket Man Knows Better

by Blaine Harden

The lesson of the Korean War is that for all its Orwellian blather, the Kim family dictatorship has survived this long by being coldly rational, even as it projects wild-eyed belligerence.


Will Donald Trump Destroy the Presidency?

by Jack Goldsmith

He disdains the rule of law. He’s trampling norms of presidential behavior. And he’s bringing vital institutions down with him.


We don’t think Michelle Jones could change because we see black moms as monsters

by Manisha Sinha

Part of the controversy at the heart of Jones’s case is about our culture’s differing notions of crime and punishment: While progressives in the United States have tended to prefer reformative justice, conservatives have tended to resort to retributive justice.


Medicare for all sounds great, but BernieCare is a political flop

by Christy Ford Chapin

It fails to learn from Medicare's success and the Affordable Care Act's struggles.


The Descent of Democracy

by Khalil Gibran Muhammad

Trump is indeed a threat to democracy but it is important to recognize that the threats are not new.


How Congress Got Filled With Future Ex-Cons

by Gil Troy

This soft spot for rascals seems surprising in a nation founded by bluenose Puritans and virtue-obsessed Revolutionaries, but charming sinners often trump priggish saints.


Recalling Muhammad Ali’s Vietnam War Resistance in the Age of Trump

by David Remnick

What makes modern athletes’ national-anthem protests different from Muhammad Ali’s resistance to the Vietnam War draft, and his insistence on the rights of African-Americans, a half century ago?


If Trump were really President, he’d Forgive Puerto Rico’s Debts and Rescue it

by Juan Cole

So you want to help Puerto Ricans, who are, remember, American citizens? Act like a president. Be decisive.


The Post-Literate American Presidency

by Jeet Heer

Trump is truly the first TV president and a harbinger of the decline in intelligence to come in U.S. politics.


Borders are back and a new game looms

by Niall Ferguson

European elites sneer compulsively at Trump, but polls show that majorities of their citizens would support a similar ban on Muslim immigration into the European Union.


World War III With China

by Alfred W. McCoy

How It might actually be fought.