History

An understanding of our history is as crucial to a successful democratic society as it is essential to the well-examined life of the individual. As historian Howard Zinn told Bill Moyers, “I think the more people learn about the past… the more that they will understand that it is possible for people to change the world.” Start your understanding with some of the series and specials below.

EXPLORE History

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Web Extra: Lincoln, The ‘Prose Poet’
December 21, 2012

In this web-only video, screenwriter Tony Kushner and Bill Moyers discuss what draws us to examine Abraham Lincoln again and again. Continue reading

President Franklin D. Roosevelt shown at the White House, in Washington on Jan. 30, 1935 with an imposing battery of microphones lined up in front of him as he broadcast to the nation. (AP Photo)
The FCC, the Public Interest and the Blue Book
December 19, 2012 | Q&A
Victor Pickard answers our questions about the (almost) golden age of the FCC when progressive commissioners tried to make commercial media more attentive to public interests.
Shop owner Tamara Doherty, paces outside her store just down the road from Sandy Hook Elementary School, Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012, in Newtown, Conn. The massacre of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary school elicited horror and soul-searching around the world even as it raised more basic questions about why the gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, would have been driven to such a crime and how he chose his victims. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Just a Few Miles From Newtown
December 16, 2012 | News & Notes

There have been an estimated 31 school shootings in the United States since Columbine in 1999. We will hear all these and other statistics in the days ahead and in a week or so they will fade until the next time. Unless this time we stand up and say no. Continue reading

Mickey Edwards new book is The Parties Versus the People: How to Turn Republicans and Democrats into Americans. (Photo credit: Dale Robbins)
Book Excerpt: Mickey Edwards on America’s “Myside Bias”
December 5, 2012
In this excerpt from Chapter Twelve of the Edwards' new book The Parties Versus the People: How to Turn Republicans and Democrats into Americans," Edwards partially attributes lack of compromise in American politics to a phenomenon called "Myside Bias".
from the Southern Labor Archives at Georgia State University
Plutocrats: Then & Now
October 19, 2012

See a breakdown of how the icons, toys, and titans of our first Gilded Age compare to this one. Continue reading

Becky Olson votes while her 2-year old daughter Lauren walks underneath the voting booths set up at the Seventh Day Adventist church Tuesday morning, Nov. 7, 2006, in Kuna, Idaho. (AP Photo/Troy Maben)
Election Expert Richard Hasen on Voter Fraud and Disenfranchisement
September 25, 2012 | Q&A

Richard Hasen, author of the Election Law Blog, discusses truths and exaggerations on both sides of the voting rights debate. Continue reading

Mitt Romney in the secretly-recorded video obtained by Mother Jones
Mitt Tells the Truth
September 21, 2012 | On Democracy

The contempt with which some wealthy Americans privately view those beneath them is actually an old story. Continue reading

Engraving of Susan B. Anthony, c. 1855
Was Susan B. Anthony “Pro-Life?”
September 21, 2012 | Q&A

How a pro-life political action group appropriated the name of the famous women’s rights leader. Continue reading

The five plaintiffs in a case of women employees against Wal-Mart, from left, Stephanie Odle, of Norman, Okla., Betty Dukes, of Pittsburg, Calif., Deborah Gunter, of Palm Springs, Calif., Christine Kwapnoski, of Bay Point, Calif., and Edith Arena, of Duarte, Calif. pose for a photograph outside the Supreme Court in Washington. The Supreme Court has ruled for Wal-Mart in its fight to block a massive sex discrimination lawsuit on behalf of women who work there. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
Famous 5-4 Decisions by the One Percent Court
September 14, 2012

A look at eight recent Supreme Court decisions decided by a single vote, and their consequences for democracy. Continue reading

Robert Bork is sworn before the Senate Judiciary Committee at his confirmation hearing, Sept. 15, 1987. (AP Photo/John Duricka)
Romney’s Divisive Judicial Advisor: Robert Bork
September 14, 2012

Mitt Romney’s choice of the rejected Supreme Court nominee as his Judicial Advisory Committee chairman raises eyebrows and concerns. Continue reading

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