Frank Sinatra, Kim Charney, Nancy Gates & Sterling Hayden in Suddenly, 1954

The Sinatra Movie Some Blamed for JFK’s Death

In the 1950s, Frank Sinatra starred in Suddenly, a movie that happens to depict a plot against the President.
President Barack Obama speaks as former President Bill Clinton (L) and former President George W. Bush (R) listen in the Rose Garden of the White House January 16, 2010. President Obama and the former Presidents Bush and Clinton spoke about the efforts to coordinate American Charitable aid to the earthquake victims in Haiti.

Bipartisan Forever Wars

A critical analysis of both political parties is necessary to understand how the US has created its informal empire—and to envision a different future.
Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman: Everything Is Political

An interview with the Nobel prize-winning economist on what to do about the “zombie ideas” that animate contemporary political discourse.
Prince Andrew

Who Survives a Political Scandal?

For a public figure, a scandal is a predictable hazard of the trade. What's less predictable, however, is who survives one.
Larry Lessig

Lawrence Lessig: How to Repair Our Democracy

Law professor and one-time presidential hopeful Lawrence Lessig on campaign finance, gerrymandering, and the electoral college.
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cole_Thomas_The_Course_of_Empire_Destruction_1836.jpg

A Nation in Decline, as Always

What does it really mean for a nation to be “in decline?” And why does it make for such appealing political rhetoric?
A moose skeleton

America, Where the Dogs Don’t Bark and the Birds Don’t Sing

The Comte de Buffon's thirty-six volume Natural History claimed that America was a land of degeneracy. That enraged Thomas Jefferson.
A family around a thanksgiving dinner table, colored red and blue

Talk about This, Not That

Looking to avoid politics at the holiday dinner table? Food trivia, ground-up mummy pigment, and snake jaws ought to do the trick.
why US states have straight borders

Why Are U.S. Borders Straight Lines?

The ever-shifting curve of shoreline and river is no match for the infinite, idealized straight line.
Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren

An early paper by Elizabeth Warren argues for a Financial Product Safety Commission that would regulate financial products.