Watergate’s most lasting sin: Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, and the pardon that made us all cynics by Rick Perlstein Ford let Nixon off 40 years ago today. That launched Iran-Contra, "too big to fail" -- and proved power trumps law.

Does the Constitution protect corruption? by Jill Lepore What’s corruption in government exactly? Does it need to be quid pro quo?

3 Years War? Obama to Bomb Syria in fight against ISIL by Juan Cole "Everyone should just understand that the social science literature finds that external interventions typically extend, not shorten, civil wars."

Liberalism’s Beleaguered Victory by Abram N. Shulsky Could it be that liberalism spawns counter-ideologies because of its very own nature?

Sloppy Munich and Hitler anologies aren't helpful in understanding world affairs -- or Germans by Peter Gumbel "Saddam Hussein, Bashir al-Assad and Vladimir Putin are not Hitler, any more than they are Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, or Ivan the Terrible."

‘The Economist’ Has a Slavery Problem by Greg Grandin Multiple commentaries from the journal show a pattern of making sure white people aren’t taken for total villains when discussing slavery.

The Hidden History of Prosperity by Robert Kuttner In the crisis of World War II, the nation made the political choices that created the robust egalitarian economy of the next 30 years. Can we respond to the climate crisis with similar policies to rebuild the middle class?

A History: Israel's violation of human rights by Alice Lynd with the assistance of Staughton Lynd "Historians Against the War believes the study of the past is essential to the resolution of our differences in the present."

We still lie about slavery: Here’s the truth about how the American economy and power were built on forced migration and torture by Edward E. Baptist All these decades later, our history books are filled with myths and mistruths. It is time for a true reckoning.

The overestimation of the John Birch Society by Steven F. Hayward "Liberals loved the John Birch Society—almost as much as Moscow must have loved it. Liberals secretly enjoy being terrified of right-wing-extremist threats."