political history

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• SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
  9/17/2020
  

  The Deep Roots of Disdain for Black Political Leaders

  by Carole Emberton

  From Thomas Jefferson's writings, through the proslavery argument of the middle of the 19th century, the overthrow of Reconstruction, and the Jim Crow era, American politics has been influenced by the racist idea that Black people were incapable of exercising leadership in a democracy.

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• SOURCE: The New Republic
  9/8/2020
  

  The Anti-Democratic Origins of Voter Prediction (Review)

  A review of Jill Lepore's "If Then," which finds the roots of contemporary political messaging in a 1960s company's pioneering efforts to apply computer modeling to voter behavior. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  9/8/2020
  

  Are We More Divided Now Than Ever Before? (Review)

  A political scientist argues that today's polarization is enabled by the collapse of political diversity within the major parties, not by an especially ideological electorate.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  9/2/2020
  

  Disdain for the Less Educated Is the Last Acceptable Prejudice

  by Michael J. Sandel

  Joe Biden has a secret weapon in his bid for the presidency: He is the first Democratic nominee in 36 years without a degree from an Ivy League university. His campaign may test the pervasive belief that elite academic credentials are a necessity to govern.

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• SOURCE: CNN
  8/27/2020
  

  Yes, Republicans Freed The Slaves. They Were NOT These Republicans.

  Political scientist Andra Gillespie describes how the party power shifted in this country.

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• SOURCE: New York Magazine
  8/20/2020
  

  The 48-Year Journey of Joe Biden's Democratic Party

  The Democratic Party has changed considerably since Joe Biden first attended a party convention, making his constant presence in the party noteworthy.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  8/24/2020
  

  No President Or Nominee Ever Spoke At A Convention. Then FDR Broke The Rules

  In 1932, FDR flew to Chicago Stadium and became the first presidential nominee to give an acceptance speech at a political convention.

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  8/23/2020
  

  The Cool-Media Approach to Conventions

  The Democrats were forced out of the old, and figured out the new. How will Republicans respond?

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• 8/23/2020
  

  Monopoly in the 20th Century: Roosevelt Warns of Concentrated Wealth and Fascism (Excerpt)

  by Thom Hartmann

  Franklin Roosevelt recognized that the concentrated economic power of big businesses was a threat to democratic society and a step on the road to fascism, and wasn't afraid to say it. 

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• SOURCE: The New Republic
  8/20/2020
  

  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is Right to Warn of “Fascism in the United States”

  by Federico Finchelstein, Pablo Piccato and Jason Stanley

  American exceptionalism establishes as dogma that Americans are either too good or too dumb to embrace ethnonationalist authoritarianism and overthrow democratic institutions. The authors are not confident this is true. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
  8/20/2020
  

  Harris’s Speech Placed Her In The Long Legacy Of Black Women Who Built America

  by Kellie Carter Jackson

  Senator Harris has an army of shoulders to stand on, and she is going to need all of their strength, tenacity and resilience. Being called a “nasty woman” by President Trump will be the least of her concerns. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
  8/18/2020
  

  How Bill Clinton Turned a Dreadful Convention Speech into Political Stardom

  by Robert Fleegler

  Clinton used a series of television appearances and self-deprecation (and a saxophone) to recover from bombing at the 1988 Democratic convention.   

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• SOURCE: Zocálo Public Square
  8/13/2020
  

  What We Don't Understand About Fascism

  by Victoria de Grazia

  It is less useful to draw comparisons between today's right-wing politics and past fascist parties than it is to understand how broad crisis in society resembles the conditions from which fascism arose. 

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• SOURCE: Age of Revolutions
  8/17/2020
  

  Liberté, Equality, #ICantBreathe! Teaching the Age of Revolutions Using the NBA’s 2020 Summer Restart

  by Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall

  The slogans NBA players are wearing on their jerseys can help lead students to understand the objectives of 18th century revolution and the incompleteness of attempts to secure the rights and dignity of all humanity.

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• 8/16/2020
  

  The Republican Party’s Five Traps

  by Thomas E. Patterson

  Thomas Patterson's new book, excerpted here, evaluates the political traps the Republican Party has set for itself and considers the consequences for the nation if the party implodes. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  7/30/2020
  

  Fascism: A Concern

  Is the application of "fascism" to describe today's politics accurate or useful? Historians including Samuel Moyn, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, David A. Bell, and Heather Ann Thompson add perspective. 

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• SOURCE: Slate
  8/3/2020
  

  Reaganland Is the Riveting Conclusion to a Story That Still Isn’t Over (Review)

  "Rick Perlstein’s epic series shows political history and cultural history cannot be disentangled."

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• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  7/27/2020
  

  How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future

  by Jill Lepore

  Modern political campaigning can trace its origins to the desperation of the Democratic Party to target voters outside of its traditional stronghold in the South by targeting precise segments of the national electorate.

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  6/16/2020
  

  Why America’s Institutions Are Failing

  Two major parts of American institutional life--law enforcement and the regulatory state--have failed spectaculary as the culmination of long-term historical trends. 

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• SOURCE: The Conversation
  6/8/2020
  

  19 Facts About the 19th Amendment on its 100th Anniversary

  The suffrage movement that led to the 19th Amendment was intertwined with many other social reform movements of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but the broad demands of egalitarian reforms activists wanted remain unfulfilled.