American Politics Archives

Podcast

The Great American Crack-Up

Episode 67: Julian Zelizer asks us to reimagine political division as a good thing in a conversation about his new book, In Defense of Partisanship

February 10, 2025 • by Claire Potter

Back in 2016, like about a million other fans, I was listening obsessively to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway show, Hamilton: An American Musical. Unlike a lot of stage-door Johnnies, I am a historian of the United States. So, when my friend and colleague Renée Romano called to suggest we edit a collection ...

Capitalism

Behind the Balancing Act of Kamala Harris’s Industrial Policy

What should Kamala Harris learn from the complicated history of post-1970s New Liberals

October 21, 2024 • by Henry Tonks

Breaking with the strategic ambiguity of her presidential campaign’s early months, Vice President Kamala Harris served up a clearer distillation of her economic agenda in a speech to the Economic Club of Pittsburgh on September 25. The speech was fêted as Harris’s “pragmatic,” “moderate-friendly” pitch. Harris also, however, pointed to ...

Behind the Balancing Act of Kamala Harris’s Industrial Policy

Politics

You Can’t Slut-Shame Lauren Boebert

Being a slutty Gun Chick is her brand

September 26, 2023 • by Claire Potter

Americans would literally rather talk about hoodies, hand jobs, and whether we are all slut-shaming Lauren Boebert than policy....

Democracy

The United States Is in Recovery

What Texas, white supremacy and coronavirus can teach us about American history

February 18, 2021 • by Heather Cox Richardson

"In the exchange, Americans saw a president who cared, and a government that finally, after its previous leaders had told them to get out of a terrible catastrophe on their own, responded to their needs."...

Economy

How to Reopen the American Economy Now

We don’t have to choose between a depression and tens of thousands of avoidable deaths

August 24, 2020 • by Teresa Ghilarducci

And, of course, economists are on the case. In my favorite economic paper on the COVID-19 economy, Harvard University economist James Stock describes a new family of epidemiological-economic models that provide guidance about how best to reopen the economy. Here are his smart reopening requirements: promote collective behaviors to stop the spread of the ...

Democracy

Biden Versus Trump: Whose Story of America Will Americans Choose?

“That’s not who we are” — or is it?

July 10, 2020 • by Rogers M. Smith

As Plato suggested in The Republic, politics is driven more by stories than facts. As different as they are in all other regards, America’s last two presidents both won wildly improbable electoral victories while telling completely contradictory stories about their country. Barack Obama made his own hopeful story a symbol of ...

Biden Versus Trump: Whose Story of America Will Americans Choose?

Politics

Trump’s Story of America

Whistling “Dixie” through the graveyards

July 9, 2020 • by Rogers M. Smith

By the time of Trump’s Mount Rushmore speech on July 3 of this year, his targets had shifted, slightly but significantly. Now America faced threats from “angry mobs” trying to “tear down statues of our Founders” and “unleash a wave of violent crime” in the service of a “new far-left ...

Podcast

Automation, Male Baldness, and Paula White

Episode 201

October 22, 2019 • by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Nicole Hemmer and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Automation and its effect on American jobs was a core theme at this month’s Democratic debate. Natalia referred to Rick Wartzman’s book The End of Loyalty: The Rise and Fall of Good Jobs in America, excerpted in POLITICO. Natalia also referenced this timeline chronicling fears of automation, at Medium.A ...

Podcast

Boris Johnson, Purity Culture, and Spaying and Neutering Dogs

Episode 190

July 29, 2019 • by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Nicole Hemmer and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Boris Johnson is the new prime minister of Britain. Niki recommended historian Jesse Tumblin’s Washington Post article, “ How the Failure of Popular Politics Triggered the Rise of Boris Johnson.”Evangelical author Josh Harris has separated from his wife and disavowed his influential book I Kissed Dating Goodbye. Natalia ...

Feature

More Denunciation of Omar, More Bullshit: Enough!

March 9, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

It’s all over the news. Ilhan Omar has done it again. This time it’s not “the Jews” she’s attacking. It is “Obama.” This headline, viral on Facebook, says it all: “Ilhan Omar Goes After Obama, Suggests He Was a Pretty Face’ Who Got Away with Murder.’” The source: a long piece at ...

Feature

Jussie Smollett, Christopher Hasson, and Debunking Psychics

Past Present Episode 169

March 5, 2019 • by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Nicole Hemmer and Neil J. Young

In this episode, Natalia, Neil, and Niki discuss the scandal over Jussie Smollett’s alleged attack, Christopher Hasson’s terrorist plot, and how the internet is helping debunk mediums and psychics. Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Actor Jussie Smollett is at the center of the nation’s latest high-profile racial ...

Jussie Smollett, Christopher Hasson, and Debunking Psychics

Feature

Karl Lagerfeld, the Pledge of Allegiance, and Lee Radziwill

Past Present Episode 168

February 26, 2019 • by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Nicole Hemmer and Neil J. Young

In this episode, Neil, Natalia, and Niki discuss the life and legacy of Karl Lagerfeld, controversies over the Pledge of Allegiance, and the death of Lee Radziwill. Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Karl Lagerfeld, one of the most prolific designers of our era, has died. Natalia referred to ...