Roundup Top 10!

How business broke the post-war consensus and gave us Movement Conservatism by Heather Cox Richardson Coming out of the Depression and World War II, there was not a lot of daylight in America between conservatives and liberals.

The new US policy of separating immigrant children from their parents has chilling historical echoes by Nicole Hemmer America has never treated families — nonwhite families, anyway — as sacrosanct.

White politicians were coercing African-Americans to vote long before civil rights by Richard Johnson Donald Trump’s recent comments about African-American voters reflect his historical ignorance, but also call attention to an overlooked chapter of US racial history.

The Persistence of a Mythic Second Amendment in Contemporary Constitutional Culture by Saul Cornell The most prominent myth obscuring historical understanding of the Second Amendment relates to America’s frontier past.

The Enlightenment’s Dark Side by Jamelle Bouie How the Enlightenment created modern race thinking, and why we should confront it.

Why RFK's assassination still matters today by Leonard Steinhorn As we look back on Robert Kennedy's death, we can trace a straight line from that tragic moment 50 years ago at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles to the racial resentments and grievances that Richard Nixon validated to the presidency of Donald J. Trump today.

Here’s why Roseanne’s tweet was a racist slur, not a botched joke by Arica L. Coleman The centuries-old origins of “ape” as a racist slur.

Where Did Rosanne Get the Idea that Valerie Jarrett Is a Muslim? by Juan Cole She appears to have been channeling the ideas of a rightwing think tank whose vice president was just made John Bolton's chief of staff.

Rosey Grier: The Lineman Who Tried to Save RFK—And Voted for Trump by Gil Troy The arc of Rosey Grier’s political life challenges both parties—and both sides of the culture wars.

When it was determined that the President is the one who decides whether to use nuclear weapons by Alex Wellerstein A Twitter discussion reveals that even in 1948 at the time of the Berlin airlift the United States did not have a formal policy designating the President as the decider.

The Air Force’s Strange Love for the New B-21 Bomber by William J. Astore The Pentagon wants 200 of the bombers at more than half a billion dollars each (not counting cost overruns).

How an Actual GOP Hero Spoke Truth to Power—68 Years Ago by Mindy Finn Few remember Senator Margaret Chase Smith. But a Republican with some backbone would do well to follow the example she set as McCarthyism flourished.