Congress 
-
SOURCE: CNN
11/28/2021
Carrie Meek, Trailblazing Black Congresswoman, Dies at 95
Carrie Meek was the daughter of sharecroppers and the granddaughter of a slave; she was elected to Congress from Florida in 1992 as one of the first Black representatives since Reconstruction.
-
SOURCE: Washington Post
9/13/2021
The History of the Debt Ceiling: How a Routine Procedure Became Routine Political Brinksmanship
It's clear that the originators of legislation establishing a debt limit for the United States did not intend for the measure to be a land mine threatening to derail the government's operations on a recurring basis.
-
SOURCE: NPR
4/20/2021
Stuck At 435 Representatives? Why The U.S. House Hasn't Grown With Census Counts
Legislation passed in 1929 sets a cap on the size of the US House of Representatives, making the decennial census a high-stakes battle for precious seats. Expanding the House would make it more democratic and avoid taking existing seats away.
-
SOURCE: MSNBC
4/11/2021
Trump-Loving White Women are Protecting Matt Gaetz. History Tells Us Why
by Keisha N. Blain
While the allegations of potentially criminal sexual conduct by Rep. Matt Gaetz are shocking, it should not be shocking that conservative white women have closed ranks in support of the Congressman.
-
SOURCE: Substack
4/5/2021
The Closer You Look, the Worse it Gaetz
by Claire Potter
"It appears that Gaetz went to Washington to fight a culture war and stayed for the parties."
-
SOURCE: KARE
3/18/2021
U of M Professor Testifies During Hearing on Anti-Asian Violence
Historian Erika Lee testified to Congress on Thursday about anti-Asian violence in the United States, in a hearing scheduled before the killing of eight people in metro Atlanta highlighted the urgency of the issue.
-
SOURCE: The New Republic
3/4/2020
How Did "Bipartisanship" Become a Goal In Itself? (Podcast)
TNR's "Politics of Everything" podcast discusses how bipartisanship came to be the end of politics instead of a means to achieve other goals. Features historian Julian Zelizer.
-
SOURCE: New York Times
2/5/2021
Marjorie Taylor Greene Knows Exactly What She's Doing
by Jamelle Bouie
Historians Lisa McGirr, Sara Diamond, and Daniel Schlozman and Sam Rosenfeld argue that the Republican Party has always had to keep a porous border between itself and the hard right groups who led its activist base since the Goldwater years. The borders today seem to be dissolving.
-
2/4/2021
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Marjorie?
The House of Representatives has voted, mostly on party lines, to remove Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments in response to her statements endorsing the Capitol riots and conspiracy theories that school shootings were hoaxes and California wildfires were started by the Rothschild banking family using space lasers.
-
SOURCE: New York Times
1/29/2021
When the Threat of Political Violence Is Real
by Joanne B. Freeman
Republican calls for unity refuse to claim responsibility and in some cases level the threat of further violence to bully colleagues out of holding Trump and his allies accountable for the Capitol riots of January 6. This is reminiscent of the climate of threat and violence in Congress in the 19th century ahead of the Civil War.
-
SOURCE: Made by History at The Washington Post
10/31/2020
Want to See Black Women Making History? Look to Congress
by Ashley D. Farmer
The success of "The Squad" in changing the image of Congressional leadership reflects the legacy of women like Barbara Jordan, the first Black woman elected to the Texas state senate on the way to a seat in Congress.
-
SOURCE: Census Stories
9/1/2020
The Harvard Mimeograph
by Dan Bouk
The story of the 1920 census shows how difficult it can be to disentangle the methodology of the Census from the political impact of the results.
-
SOURCE: New York Times
7/30/2020
The Last Days of the Tech Emperors?
by Margaret O'Mara
The mood of Congressional questioning of tech executives recalled the traffic safety debates of the mid-1960s that helped catalyze significantly more regulation for the auto industry.
-
SOURCE: The Conversation
7/21/2020
‘In a Perfectly Just Republic,’ Bella Abzug – Born a Century Ago – Would Have Been President
by Pamela S. Nadell
A warrior for every social justice movement of her day, Bella Savitzky Abzug stood on the front lines protesting injustices that still roil this nation.
-
SOURCE: The New York Times
7/22/2020
House Votes to Remove Confederate Statues From U.S. Capitol
The bipartisan vote to banish the statues from display was the latest step in a nationwide push to remove historical symbols of racism and oppression from public places.
-
SOURCE: Dissent
7/20/2020
Remembering John Lewis
by Nicolaus Mills
How long Lewis expected America to take before it woke up he did not say, but as he showed both in the 1960s and in a political career as a Georgia Congressman that began in 1987 and lasted until his death, Lewis did not tire when change did not go as he wanted.
-
SOURCE: The Atlantic
7/18/2020
The World John Lewis Helped Create
Black leaders pause to reflect on the civil-rights icon and representative from Georgia, who spent decades calling for activism and “good trouble.”
-
SOURCE: Washington Monthly
6/22/2020
Why Can’t Republicans Elect Women?
The Republican Party has not matched the gains made by Democrats in seating women in Congress since the "Year of the Woman" in 1992.
-
4/19/2020
An Interview with Fergus Bordewich, Author of “Congress at War”
by James Thornton Harris
My work on Congress during the Compromise of 1850 showed me how much wonderful untapped and dramatic material there was to be found in the battles fought on the floor of Congress.
-
SOURCE: National Catholic Reporter
4/6/2020
Time For The Dems To Earn The Hatred Of The Wealthy And Connected
Democrats might want to make copies of the president's signing statement and mail it to all Americans, highlighting the passages where the president insists there will be no oversight.
News
- What Happens When SCOTUS is This Unpopular?
- Eve Babitz's Archive Reveals the Person Behind the Persona
- Making a Uranium Ghost Town
- Choosing History—A Rejoinder to William Baude on The Use of History at SCOTUS
- Alexandria, VA Freedom House Museum Reopens, Making Key Site of Slave Trade a Center for Black History
- Primary Source: Winning World War 1 By Fighting Waste at the Grocery Counter
- The Presidential Records Act Explains How the FBI Knew What to Search For at Mar-a-Lago
- Theocracy Now! The Forgotten Influence of L. Brent Bozell on the Right
- Janice Longone, Chronicler of American Food Traditions
- Revisiting Lady Rochford and Her Alleged Betrayal of Anne Boleyn