Current Events that Relate to History
-
Comment"We Hold These Truds": A Search For The Weirdest Piece Of America 250 Merchandise
250th-anniversary merchandise has surged, with an expanding range of commemorative items from novelty souvenirs to widespread retail offerings.Defector -
DebunkThe American Revolution Was So Much Weirder Than You Think
Alongside the Enlightenment reason we associate with the founding there were mystics, occultists, and conspiracy theorists.The Bulwark -
Retrieval“Do You Understand Your Own Language?”
Black radicals read the Declaration of Independence.Hammer & Hope -
CommentFor Most of Its History, the Supreme Court Didn’t Pretend to Be Apolitical
Early Supreme Court justices were openly political, shaping laws and campaigns, with Dred Scott revealing the Court's limited authority.Talking Points Memo -
AntecedentDeclarations Before THE Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson's declaration might be the most famous, but it wasn't the first.Journal of the American Revolution -
AntecedentBefore 1776, There Was 1649
What Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution meant to America’s revolutionaries.Jacobin -
exhibitAmerica’s Big Birthdays
Every 50 years, the nation comes together to wrestle with the principles of its founding and what they mean for us in the present.
From the HNN Archive
-
Newsletter Features
Birthright Citizenship Existed Before the Fourteenth Amendment
The idea that citizenship extends to everyone born on U.S. soil has precedents stretching back to the Founding. -
Newsletter Features
Declaring “Revolution”
Even after the fighting started, it took years before American Patriots started calling their cause a “revolution.” -
Excerpts
The Bicentennial Made American History Look Ridiculous
Many Americans felt the U.S. had failed to live up to its ideals on its 200th anniversary. They hoped it might improve by the Declaration’s next big celebration. -
Newsletter Features
An Appeal for Inaction
On the United States’ 150th birthday, Calvin Coolidge said that the country’s work was done. Not everyone agreed. -
Newsletter Features
What Has His Billion Dollars Made of Him?
Finding shades of Elon Musk in Upton Sinclair’s 1937 novel about Henry Ford. -
Newsletter Features
Reading Playboy for the History
A historian stumbles upon an article that provides a fascinating glimpse into how the world thought about witchcraft and sex in 1963.