Booked: When Slaveholders Controlled the Government, with Matthew Karp
An interview with Matthew Karp about his book, This Vast Southern Empire, and the international politics of American slavery.
Spring 2025
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Trumpism: The Fight Ahead
The political task for the left is not just to defeat Trump, but to overcome the conditions that have led millions to support him.
How the British Far Right Went Mainstream
From the National Front to UKIP, the British far right has a long history of linking social and economic grievances to immigration, while Conservatives play along. The left’s job is to unpick this connection.
The Right-Wing Roots of Britain’s EU Referendum
Crazed free-marketeers and unashamed racists have brought the UK to the brink of leaving Europe. Despite the EU’s neoliberal character, only a Remain vote will allow us to take responsibility for the future political direction of a continent that we cannot escape.
In Defense of Civility
The danger of Trump is that he is completely removing the norms of public discourse—the same norms that have served to hold in check those unwilling to see their society transformed by greater equality and liberty.
Donald Trump is the Candidate the Republican Party Deserves
After years of stoking xenophobia and racism, the GOP now has a frontrunner whose only brilliance lies in his ability to seize the populist anxiety Republicans themselves have cultivated.
Booked: The War on Booze
An interview with historian Lisa McGirr about her new book The War On Alcohol, and why Prohibition was more important than most people think.
“Coates Isn’t Hopeful”: Melvin Rogers Responds to Lester Spence
Why is Ta-Nehisi Coates unable to comfort his son in the face of the non-indictment of Darren Wilson? This is the central problem of Between the World and Me.
“Coates Is a Realist, Not a Pessimist”: Lester Spence Responds to Melvin Rogers
Rather than taking a pessimist’s approach with his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates is taking a realistic approach, grounded in American history.
Starbucks Wants To Talk About Race. But Does It Want to Talk About Racism?
According to Fortune magazine, Starbucks will “encourage baristas to discuss race relations with customers”. Starbucks’ media page says that a series of “racially charged tragedies” sparked the initiative “Race Together”. The initiative comes with stickers: [Race Together] may also engage customers in conversation …
How Racism Became Policy in Ferguson
The Justice Department report offers a glimpse of the systematically oppressive and petty policing in Ferguson. But in order to fully understand how racism became policy in the St. Louis suburbs, we need to look at the history of suburban development itself.
The Not-So-Secret Serum
“I guess if Washington Times prints it, it’s not totally baseless?” a colleague tweeted. For the second time in as many weeks, those of us closely following the Ebola outbreak in West Africa had to process the news that another …
The Ugly Racial History of “Right to Work”
Southern conservatives—including “right to work” progenitor and avowed white supremacist Vance Muse—feared that if unions united working-class whites and blacks, they could upend the Jim Crow order.
Rebel Redemption Redux
When state and municipal governments accord the rebel flag honor or recognition, they sanction all that the flag stood for: treason, slavery, and a race state.
