American history Archives - The American Prospect

Ida B. Wells: Brave Woman

By chronicling the shame of lynching in the South, Ida B. Wells exposed the corruption of white supremacy.

If Frederick Douglass, a former slave who saw the dream of emancipation drown in Jim Crow, didn’t give up on this country, then we have no excuse.

In the nation’s 250th year, we turn an eye to Americans who challenged power, took risks, and made our country greater.

Thomas Paine’s lifelong battle for freedom

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The bizarre affinity of Trump for the great progressive president

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When public needs were great, he wrote, its claim on the ‘superfluous’ property of the rich was strong and just.

How a right-wing smear campaign tried to silence the reality of Thomas Jefferson’s life, and in some ways succeeded.

Let’s remember what was revolutionary about the American Revolution.

Black Americans must push back against the Trump administration’s efforts to erase the past.

Trump’s efforts to remove Black people from America’s story have been countered by scholars, activists, judges—and history itself.