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History News Network

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Roundup Top 10!


Trump sees government as a series of deals. That’s because he’s an oligarch.

by Heather Cox Richardson

The anti-democratic spirit of the Trump administration is nothing new and nothing good.


The Crackpot Theories of Stephen Bannon’s Favorite Authors

by David Greenberg

The problems with the predictive schematic history of the sort laid out in The Fourth Turning, the book Bannon loves, start with their determinism.


Trump’s Crude, Ignorant Theory of American History

by Jeet Heer

His bizarre and mistaken beliefs about the past are a window into his mind—and serve his political agenda.


Civil War revisionism still shames America

by Manisha Sinha

Revisionists didn't believe ending slavery was worth a war. If this is what Trump believes he should say so.


The Most Successful First 100 Days Of An Administration Didn't Belong To Who You (Or Donald Trump) Think

by Kevin M. Kruse

While FDR's New Deal may have be the gold standard for presidential agenda-setting, Dwight Eisenhower did more in his first hundred days than change laws—he changed a culture.


Trump’s Plan to End Europe

by David Frum

Why does the president want to undo the post–World War II order?


Time to Recall a Progressive ‘Truly Great’ First 100 Days

by Harvey J. Kaye

The Resistance needs to develop a memory of how past generations confronted reactionary threats to American democracy.


Schools, lies and Donald Trump: Teachers must resist emulating our fact-challenged president

by Jonathan Zimmerman

Teachers shouldn't avoid controversial topics, including our president. But we can't present opinion as fact.


How Tax Policy Created the 1%

by Julia Ott

The Revenue Act of 1921 introduced a preferential or reduced tax rate on income from capital gains into the U.S. tax code, in a reversal of how policymakers had thought about different forms of income for several decades.


When Congress Made Taxes Fairer

by Bill Bradley

With President Trump now talking about overhauling the tax code, it’s worth reflecting on the last time Congress revamped the system: the Tax Reform Act of 1986.


Chinese contradictions and ironies, 1997 to 2017

by Jeffrey Wasserstrom

How can China be a “Communist country” when it has so many elements associated with capitalism?