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With today’s news about Hunter Biden’s legal troubles, I thought I’d drop a quick note about the all-time champion in the category of First Family Fuckups — the legendary Billy Carter. When his older brother ran for president, Billy Carter found himself thrust into the national spotlight and
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There’s so much terrific work out right now from nineteenth-century American historians on Juneteenth, I’m not even sure where to begin. Annette Gordon Reed’s book On Juneteenth is a terrific (and short) read, but if you’re looking for something even more recent try Tiya Miles’ piece
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Before he became one of the most outspoken critics of the Vietnam War, Daniel Ellsberg — who just passed away at the age of 92 — was one of its architects. In 1965, a half decade before he leaked the Pentagon Papers and inspired a furious Richard Nixon to exact revenge through
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Sorry to be a little late with this — as a historian, I’m not very good with dates — but yesterday actually marked the 80th anniversary of a landmark Supreme Court decision, the so-called “flag salute case” of West Virginia v. Barnette (1943). In truth, the decision was the second “flag
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Just a quick post to say thank you! Campaign Trails is just a week old, but we’ve already passed 5,000 subscribers. Campaign Trails is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. I’m enjoying the newsletter even
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True to form, Donald Trump celebrated his arrest yesterday with a speech before his most loyal sycophants. It was the usual firehose of falsehoods. Among other lies, the former president asserted that “according to the Presidential Records Act, which was a big deal, I was supposed to negotiate with NARA”
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With Donald Trump set to be arraigned on federal charges this afternoon, we’ve heard a great deal of commentary about what this moment means in the course of American history. As I noted previously here, the argument advanced by Trump’s defenders — that it’s “illegal and unprecedented” for
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I promised there would be some additional special features for paid subscribers, including AMA chats so … here’s an AMA! Happy to answer any questions about my research and writing, both past projects and the current one. Or questions about contemporary political developments and social movements and/or the history
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“There are decades when nothing happens,” Vladimir Lenin once observed, “and there are weeks when decades happen.” Changes that seem impossible for so long can, in an instant, unfold in a way that later seems inevitable. Sixty years ago today, just such a revolution took place in the long stalemate
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The diehard defenders of former President Trump have been insisting this week that the Presidential Records Act means that he had the right to keep whatever materials he wanted from his presidency. The National Archives has shot this stupidity down, pointing to the clear language of the law and speaking
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Just a short note for a Saturday, as I cannot stop laughing about the image of Donald Trump’s Combination Toilet and Top Secret Document Storage Facility. In the past, when we’ve thought about the grand history of presidents and potties, there have been a handful of usual suspects.
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I promised that I’d use Campaign Trails to offer historical perspectives on breaking news, and we certainly had that last night with the stunning revelation that Donald Trump will soon be indicted on federal charges. Trump and his allies are already claiming that a federal indictment of a former