Toni Morrison’s Radical Vision of Otherness by Nell Irvin Painter The history of racism and exclusion in the United States is the history of whiteness.

No, There Is No Precedent for Donald Trump by Sean Wilentz Understanding our current situation begins with the recognition that Trump and his incipient regime are utterly abnormal.

Is Civilian Control of the Military Eroding? by Dane Kennedy The generals’ prominent roles in the present administration are a particular cause for concern.

How the US government created and coddled the gun industry by Brian DeLay The gun lobby has succeeded by promoting an ingenious illusion. It has framed government as the enemy of the gun business rather than its indispensable historic patron.

What Do We Do with Our Dead? by Jill Lepore Our mortuary conventions reveal a lot about our relation to the past.

The Death of Che Guevara Declassified by Peter Kornbluh A top-secret CIA memo shows that US officials considered his execution a crucial victory—but they were mistaken in believing Che’s ideas could be buried along with his body.

The Architect of the Radical Right by Sam Tanenhaus How the Nobel Prize–winning economist James M. Buchanan shaped today’s antigovernment politics.

The Teen Killer Who Radicalized the NRA by Gil Troy Harlon Carter transformed the NRA from a rifle club into the take-no-prisoners anti-gun-control powerhouse. But he also had a very dark past.

The History Behind the Movement to Replace Columbus Day With Indigenous Peoples' Day by Arica L. Coleman Though the first Indigenous Peoples’ Day was celebrated in the early 1990s, the idea took shape many years earlier.

How Columbus, of all people, became a national symbol by William Francis Keegan Columbus likely would have slipped back into obscurity if not for American hubris.