Politics

By looking back at historic polls, we can find some surprising relevance to today's politics

Inside the Alluring Power of Public Opinion Polls From Elections Past

A digital-savvy historian discusses his popular @HistOpinion Twitter account

After U.S. Border Patrol spots their raft, migrants speed back toward the Mexico side of the Rio Grande.

Myth and Reason on the Mexican Border

The renowned travel writer journeys the length of the U.S.-Mexico border to get a firsthand look at life along the blurry 2,000-mile line

How the Heated, Divisive Election of 1800 Was the First Real Test of American Democracy

A banner from the Smithsonian collections lays out the stakes of Jefferson vs. Adams

Four Finds from University of Kansas' Collection of Radical Zines

The university's Solidarity! Radical Library boasts a collection of almost 1,000 alternative papers

The Library of Celsus at Ephesus, an ancient Greek colony in southwestern Turkey.

Austria and Turkey Are Butting Heads Over an Archaeological Dig

Turkish authorities have shut down a major dig early due to international tensions

Federal Corrections Instiution, Ray Brook, is housed inside the former Olympic Village for the 1980 games in Lake Placid

Why the 1980 Olympic Village Is Now a Prison

It’s one way to deal with leftover infrastructure

Irom Sharmila ended her 16-year-long fast with a lick of honey.

Why India’s “Iron Lady” Went on a Hunger Strike for 16 Years

Irom Chanu Sharmila resisted a draconian law with her own body

Emperor Akihito in 2014

What Is the Role of the Emperor in Modern Japan?

While the role is ceremonial, abdication could mean a political battle

Convicted bank robber, Patty Hearst arrest photo

How the Abduction of Patty Hearst Made Her an Icon of the 1970s Counterculture

A new book places a much-needed modern-day lens on the kidnapping that captivated the nation

Lisa Kathleen Graddy and Jon Grinspan, curators with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History

How Do Smithsonian Curators Decide What to Collect at the Political Conventions?

For Smithsonian’s Lisa Kathleen Graddy and Jon Grinspan, it’s trying to guess what people of the future will want to know about 2016

Walmart Once Pulled a Shirt That Said “Someday a Woman Will Be President” From Its Shelves

While Hillary Clinton was living in the White House, no less

Concerns about patronage under the Grant Administration inspired Horace Greeley (depicted above Grant's left shoulder) to run for President.

The Only Time a Major Party Embraced a Third-Party Candidate for President

Horace Greeley was the choice of the splinter grip named the Liberal Republican Party and that of the Democrats

Earliest known photograph of the White House. The image was taken in 1846 by John Plumbe during the administration of James K. Polk.

The White House Was, in Fact, Built by Enslaved Labor

Along with the Capitol and other iconic buildings in Washington, D.C.

Is this supposed to be a democracy or what? (Shown here: North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un visiting Mangyongdae Revolutionary School in 2014.)

Metaphorically Speaking, Your Nervous System is a Dictatorship

Except when it's an oligarchy. Or a democracy. Or all three.

Images are fast outpacing words as the major means of communication.

How to Avoid the Pitfalls in the Politics of Graphic Messaging

The director of the National Portrait Gallery offers a few pointers on how to acquire visual intelligence

A cartoon from the magazine The Judge, where "Democracy" is portrayed as the devil overlooking Washington, D.C., and looks very much like Grover Cleveland.

Lucifer Has Long Had His Hands in Politics

Since the earliest days of Christianity, people have accused their political rivals of being in league with the Devil

There is an outbreak of norovirus among a group of staffers for the California delegation of the Republican National Convention in Ohio.

Likely Norovirus Outbreak Strikes the GOP Convention

It’s a short-lived bug with explosive—and contagious—results

These Anti-Suffrage Postcards Warned Against Giving Women the Vote

There are always those who resist societal change

What the Candidates (and Journalists) Can Learn From the 1948 Democratic Convention

The first time television was beamed into millions of homes meant that presidential politics would have to change

Image captured from the 1948 Republican National Convention.

Watch Historic Footage of Seven Consequential (and Cringeworthy) Convention Moments

These tidbits of political theater past must be seen to be believed

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