Pop Culture Roundup: This Week This week ... Frederick Douglass, van Gough's ear, nuns raped in WW2, "Free State of Jones" and more.

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Stunning Facts You Don’t Want to Miss Our ongoing list of amazing facts that will alter how you think about politics and history.

Is America Repeating the Mistakes of 1968? by Julian E. Zelizer The Kerner Report confronted a tense nation with data about structural racism throughout the country and made recommendations to solve the problem. But America looked away.

How Hitler’s Rise to Power Explains Why Republicans Accept Donald Trump by Jonathan Chait Hindenburg and the German right viewed Hitler in strikingly similar terms to how Republican elites view Trump.

The Year the Veepstakes Really Mattered by Jeff Greenfield If you’re seeking the single most consequential VP choice in modern times—one that justifies our “veepstakes” obsession—look to 1944.

In Praise of Speculative History by Frank Palmeri Conjectural works share a method and a project: to broaden the scope of historical understanding beyond the thin span of written rec­ords by speculating on the basis of the available evidence about the origins of human behavior.

The Medieval Somme: forgotten battle that was the bloodiest fought on British soil by James Clark A Battle of the Somme on British soil?

What would Abraham Lincoln say to Donald Trump about religion, politics and being a ‘Know Nothing’? by Donald Nieman As the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump could learn a lot from his party’s first president, Abraham Lincoln.

Chilcot Report damns the charade of Iraq War by Andrew J. Bacevich Like Bush, Tony Blair chose to believe what he found it convenient to believe.

The Paradox of Gun History by Pamela Haag Today, guns draw political authority not only from foundational views of the Second Amendment but also from the narrative of their timelessly central place in history.

Tony Blair’s legacy? Don’t be too quick to judge. by Niall Ferguson Hindsight is a wonderful thing. It means that, while success has many fathers, failure only ever has one.

It Is Important to Have Perspective on Elie Wiesel's Legacy by Max Blumenthal While Wiesel leveraged his literary talents to win sympathy for Jewish victims of genocide, he sought to limit the narratives of other groups subjected to industrial-level extermination.