essay us history

153 US History Topics [2024 US History Essay Ideas]

American history is not as long as the European one. However, it’s one of the richest histories in the world. It’s full of controversies, different opinions, and interesting facts. Those who study American history will find how many voices, perspectives, and points of view can coexist.

When writing an essay about America, you should try to stay as objective as possible. Think creatively and consider historical events from a new perspective.

This abundance of information and events can intimidate anyone. That’s why it can be very challenging to select one single US history topic to write about. There are so many!

To decide on it, students should answer several questions:

• What time period interests me the most?
• What specific event sounds the most appealing to me?
• What historical figure impresses me?

It is indeed a daunting task to attempt to put the remarkable story of the US into an essay list. Fortunately, we’re not trying to do so.

Tired of researching historical encyclopedias? This is the perfect article for you – read through this collection of 153 US history essay topics prepared by our team .

🌎Top 10 American History Topics to Write about

• 🏗️ Topics before 1877
• 🌻 Topics: 1878-1899
• 🏙️ US Topics: 1900s

🧊 Cool American History Topics

• 🧐 US Regents Topics
• ✊ Black History Topics

🎉 Fun US History Essay Topics

👌 easy american history essay topics, ❓ us history essay questions, 📋 how to cite an american history essay.

• The 20th Century.
• America’s Role in Normandy Landings.
• Conquest of California.
• The Great Depression.
• USA: Colonial History.
• The Oregon Trail.
• African American Slave Trade.
• Who was Harriet Tubman?
• America in the Modern World.
• Klondike Gold Rush.

☝️ Good US History Topics by Period

This is the IvyPanda list of American history topics that can help students get inspired!

We divided the history into epochs and organized the US history essay topics accordingly. Besides, this US history topics list structured thematically. It, hopefully, will make it easier to navigate and get started.

One of the best ways to look at history is to examine it from a chronological perspective. The topics in this section are structured based on the time period.

Every period is filled with key events and figures. American society is the product of those events—it’s vital to have a closer look at it.

🏗️ History Topics before 1877

• America before Columbus . In this topic, you can talk about the first people in the Americas and what historians know about them. There are a lot of archeological findings and artifacts that survived thousands of years. Write about Christopher Columbus and how “the discovery” was not a discovery. The Americas have been inhabited and had developed civilizations long before Europeans put their foot there.
• The first landing of Christopher Columbus and the New World

• Christopher Columbus: Biography, Discoveries, Contributions . You can talk about Christopher Columbus and his biography. Track how his image has been changing throughout history. Modern historians see him as a person who contributed to the genocide of Native Americans. What is your opinion about him?
• The British Rule in the Americas and the first British Settlements. Explore the first permanent colony in North America and what English wanted the colonies to be. There were a lot of obstacles, which first settlers had faced before Jamestown became a prosperous city. They suffered from a shortage of food, severe climate conditions, and disease. Plus, there were problems with the Indians. Research what “the middle ground” was and why this concept is relevant to this topic.
• What is Puritanism?
• Puritans in Great Britain
• The Puritan Ethic in the United States . Who the Puritans were? Why were they sent to the New World? What were their religious beliefs? Explore the influence puritans had in the past. Is puritanism still relevant in the US today?
• The Effects of the Spanish Rule and The Conquistadors in the Americas. Spanish Colonization of the Americas laid foundations for the Latin American identity. It is also considered the very first mass genocide in the world. It is indeed a matter of perspective. You can talk about how the contact between the Native Americans and the Spaniards affected both parties.
• The Protestant Reformation and its influence on the US History. Religion was one of the main reasons why the first settlers decided to travel to the New World. Write about the connection between the freedom of religion in the US. What influence did it have on the nation as a whole in the future? Why is it crucial? How did it affect the lifestyle of people in the US?
• Native Americans and “the Middle Ground” . Not everyone knows that the famous Disney cartoon Pocahontas is based on the true story. If this story was told by a Native American, it would be different. In this essay, you can comment on the role that Native Americans played in the European Colonization. Elaborate on the disappearance of “the Middle Ground.”
• The beginning of slavery in British America and the Middle Passage. You can analyze the way this institution was established. Write about the factors that influenced it in the 17th century, try to include first-person accounts of slavery. Use the American Slave Narrative , for instance, Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa . This inclusion will demonstrate how inhumane slavery was and will open a good discussion.
• Christianity, slavery, and colonialism in the US
• The witchcraft trials . Elaborate on religious views of the New England public. How such views made it possible for more than 200 people to be accused of witchcraft. Discuss a Puritan code, the structure of the society, and what type of women were prosecuted.

• The Boston Tea Party as the key event of the American Revolution. The Boston Tea Party is a highly celebrated event in the history of the US. Discuss why is that? Why is it so important for the Americans? Talk about the birth of patriotism, resistance and the revolt against colonialism. What did the rebels mean by “taxation without representation?”
• The American Revolutionary War and the Declaration of Independence. This topic is one of the most popular in the history of the United States. First, you could write about a military battle with Great Britain and the reasons for it. Second, talk about political battles within the US at that period. Examine the establishment of the new nation.
• How the Revolutionary war changes American Society
• Why was the Declaration of Independence written?
• Was the American Revolution really revolutionary?
• The meaning of the Constitution. This is one of the most fruitful and fascinating debates in US history. Some people argue that it is written in a very vague way to allow American society to evolve. Others say that its text allows minorities to be deprived of the very things it promises to establish. Elaborate if you find the Constitution to be a liberal, radical, or a conservative document.
• Why the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution. Talk about the first 10 amendments to the Constitution and explore why these amendments are so important. What did the amendments guarantee? Why was The Bill of Rights added to the Constitution in the first place?

• The Founding Fathers’ influence on the US. The Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence are sacred documents. The Founding Fathers are major figures for the Americans as well. Writing about the influence of the Founding Fathers, select one or two members to focus on. Consider the diversity among the members. How did it help the Founding Fathers in leading the war and framing a sustainable government?
• What is the role of the Founding Fathers in American society and religion?
• European Colonization influence on the Native American population
• Removal of Indian tribes. American History is unjust at times. Explore how unconstitutional the treatment of Indian Americans was and why they find it this way. Look at the way the Founding Fathers addressed this issue. Examining the Indian Removal Act of 1830 will allow you to fully develop this topic. Analyze why the policy was accepted in the first place. Why is it called “ethnic cleansing” by the majority of historians nowadays?
• Native Americans lost their freedom
• The impact of railroads in America. The rapid expansion of America would be impossible without the railroad construction. The railroads triggered the development of the Midwest and the West. Despite that, the construction of the railroads was highly monopolistic and undemocratic. Comment on the richest men in the US – John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and Cornelius Vanderbilt.
• The role of cotton in the American economy. The American Economy in the 19th century heavily depended on cotton production. There was even a saying “Cotton is King” that was very popular at that time. Besides cotton, it heavily depended on the slaves. This period in American History is called the Antebellum Era. Look at the role of cotton from several perspectives. How profitable was it? How did slaves contribute to the American economy? How financially unviable was the abolition of slavery?

• History of American Transcendentalism.
• Why was Transcendentalism important for American Culture? The essay can start with a broad explanation of what transcendentalism is. Explain where it started and how it evolved. Explore what views the group had on women’s rights, slavery, education, government, and religion. You could write about the most prominent transcendentalists – Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Thoreau.
• Religions in the 19th Century America. Known as the Second Great Awakening or Christian Revivalism, religion in the 19th century America was altered. Look back at the beginning of the American Revolution. Anglicans, Methodists, and Quackers were the fastest-growing religious groups then. Discuss all of them.
• The abolition of slavery and the Civil War . A lot of historians believe that slavery in itself did not cause the conflict. In this essay, you could elaborate on this idea and consider the other point of view. For a long essay, write about Abraham Lincoln’s thoughts on slavery. His ideas about slavery and racial inequality were one of the most discussed aspects of his entire life. Look at his letters and write about the complexity of his views.
• The causes of the Civil War and the aftermath of war. This essay is one of the easiest American history essays to write. Talk about the causes and effects of the Civil War (1861-1865) in the US. Why did it happen? What was achieved?
• The struggle over the goal and the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment . You can elaborate on the goal of the amendment. Was it able to protect the rights of black citizens? Why was it still possible for the states to deny them their right to vote?
• How did Reconstruction change the United States after the Civil war?
• The Reconstruction governments. What type of reforms did the reconstruction government implement? What positive reforms happened during the Reconstruction Era? You could discuss radical reconstruction and white supremacy that spawned during the Reconstruction period. Elaborate on the idea of manifest destiny. Why was it so popular in the 19th century in the US?
• The Compromise of 1850 . Why was reaching the compromise necessary? You can describe the terms of the compromise. Explain what results were achieved: political, economic, and cultural.

🌻 American History 1878-1899

The United States was going through many changes during this period: from various social changes and changes in foreign and domestic policies to rapid economic and cultural changes. This time saw the country changing for the best in some aspects and for the worst in others.

• Industrialization after the Civil war. Industrialization of the United States was going on for almost half a century. However, the most impressive growth happened in 1880-1900. The expansion of the steel, iron and oil industries drove the American economy. Comment on all the inventions, technological advancements that happened in the US at that time.
• Immigrants and their ideas of the American Dream
• Social reforms during the Progressive Era
• American Foreign Policy in the 1890s

• The importance of the Progressive Era reforms
• Race relations during the Progressive Era reforms
• Japanese Americans Immigration in the 19th century

🏙️ 20th Century US History Topics

The 20th century for the United States and the world, in general, was highly eventful. Economic crises, two World Wars, the Cold War, and the fight over civil rights. Plus, a huge economic and technological upheaval, the space program.

This list of American History topics after 1900 can be great for those looking for inspiration for a paper.

Here you go:

• The door to America— Ellis Island. What are America’s best features? Economic opportunities, political and religious freedom? An abundance of jobs and opportunities? Land and natural resources? All of these made the United States experience the migration flux from all over the world. Elaborate on how Ellis island is a symbol of American immigration and the American dream.

• The rise of capitalism
• Work environments during the Progressive Era
• Women’s suffrage movement in America
• The causes and effects of women’s suffrage movement in the US
• Changes in American Government after WWI
• Is prohibition to blame for the organized crime in The United States?
• The economic impact of the Great Depression. The Great Depression is one of the longest economic downturns in the history of the United States. You can talk about several main causes of the crisis. Another good approach would be to analyze the way American presidents handled this crisis.
• Japanese American discrimination during the Great Depression
• How did Roosevelt plan to end the Great Depression?
• The Great Depression and what is the new deal?
• The Role of the United States during World War 2
• Why did the United States fight and lose the Vietnam War?
• The war in Vietnam and the Civil Rights Movement
• A Comparison of the traditional and the revisionist arguments regarding the Origins of The Cold War
• The Cold War and US diplomacy
• The Cold War and how it influenced American society

History is tough, but some significant historical events take our breath away even centuries later. Here is our list of cool American history topics. Even if you don’t find any topic that works for you, it can inspire you to look for moments in history that appeal to you personally.

• The true Story of Pocahontas: An untold story of a Native American girl. The true story of Pocahontas is covered with myths. Critically examine the story of her life and death. Try to understand it from a standpoint of a 12 years old Native American girl kidnapped by a white colonizer.
• Native American tribes in the US History
• What was discussed at the Constitutional Convention?
• The history of the Statue of Liberty
• Henry Ford and how his inventions changed America
• Moon landing conspiracy
• The war on drugs in US History
• Illegal immigrants in the US
• The American sense of humor
• American pop culture in the 1920s . This time period is called “the roaring twenties.” It was filled with drastic political and cultural changes in the United States. Jazz, flapper culture, prohibition, and economic abundance are important elements of the 1920s.

• The history of gangs in the US
• What did hippies believe in?
• History of Hippie’s Culture
• Presidential assassinations in the United States History. Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and JFK were the only US Presidents murdered while in office. You don’t have to retell the stories of their deaths! Instead, explore how these assassinations triggered some vital political reforms.
• The history of the Fifth Amendment

🙌 Most Interesting American History Topics

Use the following list of most interesting US History topics for your next essay. Choose what US history interesting event or a historic figure captures your attention the most.

🧐 US History Regent Topics

• The Relationships Between Federal and State Governments
• Was there a need to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
• The Cold War: Origins, Causes, Phases, and the Results
• Why and How the Cold War Was Fought
• The US Army in the Iraq War
• The Iraq War: Background and Issues
• Why did the Iraq War go against the plan?
• Executive Orders and Presidential Power in the United States
• History of the American Constitution
• The Turning points of the American Revolution

✊ Black History Essay Topics

Studying the history of the United States without studying slavery is impossible, mainly because the issue of race is ingrained into the DNA of America.

Black African American history allows students to get a different perspective on the same events. It lets them hear the voices that are so often erased from the history books. These African American history essays can help anyone looking for a good topic to write about.

• Slave Resistance in the Eighteen Century. Continuously throughout history, African American slaves were portrayed as voiceless and victimized. Others presented them as almost indifferent and passive to their own destiny. You can examine a different perspective, an Afrocentric one. The history of slavery was not the history of passivity, it was a history of black resistance.
• African American Music as a Form of Resistance
• African American Religion and Spirituality in the United States
• The 13th Amendment and the End of Slavery
• The Jim Crow Laws in the United States History . Jim Crow Laws were the laws that enforced racial segregation in the country. Dedicate an introduction to discuss where the name “Jim Crow” comes from. Give a historical background to how the laws were used. This topic can make a strong essay because no one can stay indifferent.
• Gender and Jim Crow
• The Role of Martin Luther King, Jr in The Civil Right Movement
• Martin Luther King’s speech “I have a dream”
• Brown vs The Board of Education . The ruling in Brown vs. The Board of Education was one of the most fundamental changes in the US educational system. How did the general public receive the news about the desegregation of public schools? How did the American educational system change after this case?
• The Significance of the Harlem Renaissance
• Barack Obama: The First African American President
• Barack Obama’s healthcare reforms
• Has Obama’s Presidency changed America?

• The Cowboy Culture in the US
• How Did Yellow Journalism Start?
• Why is Superman the most American of all the heroes?
• The History of American Flag
• History of Sports in the United States
• History of Thanksgiving Turkey in the United States
• How Did Highways Change the United States of America?
• American History through Hollywood Film

Sometimes you simply do not have enough time to write a profound essay. These American history topics are relatively easy, and you don’t have to research them a lot. Even if you do, there is a ton of information available.

• British Colonization of the Americas
• Slavery and racism in the United States
• The Puritans Influence on the American Society
• The pilgrims and the puritans
• The Causes of the Vietnam War
• Why Was Martin Luter King Assassinated?
• American Moon Landing
• What Are Major Events in the US History?
• What Started the US History?
• What Is the Most Important Piece of the US History?
• What Is the US History Summary?
• What City Was the First Capital in the US History?
• What Was the First American State in the US History?
• What Are Some Controversies in the US History?
• How Far Was the New Deal a Turning Point in the US History up to 1941?
• How the Airplane Industry Changed US History?
• What Was President Reagan Known For in the US History?
• How Reagan’s Ideology Shaped the US History?
• Why Is the Reagan Revolution in the US History?
• How Richard Nixon Influenced the US History?
• What Vietnam War Showed About US History?
• Did the Concept of Imperialism Exist in the US History?
• Why Did the Wars in the Middle East Go Down in the US History as Unnecessary?
• What Is the Most Popular Ideology in the US History?
• How Does the US History Describe George W. Bush?
• How Did the Use of Nuclear Weapons in Japan Affect the US History?
• What Are Some Horrible and Forgotten Events in the US History?
• Is Donald Trump the Second Worst President in the US History?
• What Was the Biggest Political Miscalculation in the US History?
• Who Is the Most Overrated First Lady in the US History?
• How Well Do US History Teachers Really Know About the US History?
• Who Was the Wimpiest President in the US History?
• Who Are Some of the Great Asian Americans in the US History?
• What Was the Most Corrupt Time in the US History?
• What Was the Bloodiest Single Day Battle in the US History?
• Who Is the Greatest Hero in the US History?
• How Did King Philip’s War Change the US History?

Your citation will depend on the type of requirements your instructor will provide you with. You can ask your teacher which style of citation is preferable before the essay writing. The school itself may have specific guidelines for every typeof academic writing.

For history essays, there are two key methods of referencing both primary and secondary sources:

• In-text citation. In this method, you mention the author and the year in the body of the essay. The list of references is placed at the end of the essay.
• Footnote Referencing. In this method, you put a number in the body. It corresponds with the reference at the bottom of each page. At the end of the essay, a list of works read rather than cited should be included.

All the citation entries should be listed in alphabetical order. If you mention the same author multiple times with different works, use chronological order.

Keeping track of all the sources, both read and cited, is time-consuming. For that, students can try to use different online software systems. These systems can help arrange the list alphabetically and correctly organize all the citations.

These digital tools are worth checking out:

Thank you for reading so far! Now you’re ready to start an amazing paper on US history. Share this article with those who may find it helpful, and leave a comment below.

🔗 References

• U.S. History and Historical Documents: USAGov, the Official Guide to Government Information and Services.
• All Topics: National Museum of American History.
• TIMELINE, United States History: World Digital Library.
• How Do I Cite Sources: Plagiarism.org.
• Citing Primary Sources, Chicago: Teacher Resources, Library of Congress.
• Black History, Topical: National Archives.
• Black History Month: National Geographic Society.
• College Writing: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
• Writing Historical Essays, A Guide for Undergraduates: Department of History, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.
• Writing an Essay Introduction: Research & Learning Online.
• Research and Citation Resources: Purdue Writing Lab, College of Liberal Art.
• Citing Your Sources, Citing Basics: Research Guides at Williams College Libraries.
• Citing Electronic Sources: Academic Integrity at MIT, a Handbok for Students.
• Generate Topic Ideas Quickly and Easily: Online Research Library Questia.
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IvyPanda. (2024, March 12). 153 US History Topics [2024 US History Essay Ideas]. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/us-history-essay-topics/

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Video transcript

Office of State Assessment

• Foreign Languages
• Mathematics
• Social Studies
• Elementary and Intermediate

Regents Examination in United States History and Government

The chart for determining students’ final examination scores for the June 2023 Regents Examination in United States History and Government will be posted no later than June 23, 2023. Conversion charts provided for the previous administrations of the United States History and Government examination must NOT be used to determine students’ final scores for this administration.

• Translated Editions

University of the State of New York - New York State Education Department

Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, the best us history regents review guide 2020.

General Education

Taking US History in preparation for the Regents test? The next US History Regents exam dates are Wednesday, January 22nd and Thursday, June 18th, both at 9:15am. Will you be prepared?

You may have heard the test is undergoing some significant changes. In this guide, we explain everything you need to know about the newly-revised US History Regents exam, from what the format will look like to which topics it'll cover. We also include official sample questions of every question type you'll see on this test and break down exactly what your answers to each of them should include.

What Is the Format of the US History Regents Exam?

Beginning in 2020, the US History Regents exam will have a new format. Previously, the test consisted of 50 multiple-choice questions with long essays, but now it will have a mix of multiple choice, short answer, short essay, and long essay questions (schools can choose to use the old version of the exam through June 2021). Here's the format of the new test, along with how it's scored:

In Part 2, there will be two sets of paired documents (always primary sources). For each pair of documents, students will answer with a short essay (about two to three paragraphs, no introduction or conclusion).

For the first pair of documents, students will need to describe the historical context of the documents and explain how the two documents relate to each other. For the second pair, students will again describe the historical context of the documents then explain how audience, bias, purpose, or point of view affect the reliability of each document.

Part A: Students will be given a set of documents focused on a civil or constitutional issue, and they'll need to respond to a set of six short-answer questions about them.

Part B: Using the same set of documents as Part A, students will write a full-length essay (the Civic Literacy essay) that answers the following prompt:

• Describe the historical circumstances surrounding a constitutional or civic issue.
• Explain efforts by individuals, groups, and/or governments to address this constitutional or civic issue.
• Discuss the extent to which these efforts were successful OR discuss the impact of the efforts on the United States and/or American society.

What Topics Does the US History Regents Exam Cover?

Even though the format of the US History Regents test is changing, the topics the exam focuses on are pretty much staying the same. New Visions for Public Schools recommends teachers base their US History class around the following ten units:

As you can see, the US History Regents exam can cover pretty much any major topic/era/conflict in US History from the colonial period to present day, so make sure you have a good grasp of each topic during your US History Regents review.

What Will Questions Look Like on the US History Regents Exam?

Because the US History Regents exam is being revamped for 2020, all the old released exams (with answer explanations) are out-of-date. They can still be useful study tools, but you'll need to remember that they won't be the same as the test you'll be taking.

Fortunately, the New York State Education Department has released a partial sample exam so you can see what the new version of the US History Regents exam will be like. In this section, we go over a sample question for each of the four question types you'll see on the test and explain how to answer it.

Multiple-Choice Sample Question

Base your answers to questions 1 through 3 on the letter below and on your knowledge of social studies.

• Upton Sinclair wrote this letter to President Theodore Roosevelt to inform the president about

1. excessive federal regulation of meatpacking plants 2. unhealthy practices in the meatpacking plants 3. raising wages for meatpacking workers 4. state laws regulating the meatpacking industry

There will be 28 multiple-choice questions on the exam, and they'll all reference "stimuli" such as this example's excerpt of a letter from Upton Sinclair to Theodore Roosevelt. This means you'll never need to pull an answer out of thin air (you'll always have information from the stimulus to refer to), but you will still need a solid knowledge of US history to do well.

To answer these questions, first read the stimulus carefully but still efficiently. In this example, Sinclair is describing a place called "Packingtown," and it seems to be pretty gross. He mentions rotting meat, dead rats, infected animals, etc.

Once you have a solid idea of what the stimulus is about, read the answer choices (some students may prefer to read through the answer choices before reading the stimulus; try both to see which you prefer).

Option 1 doesn't seem correct because there definitely doesn't seem to be much regulation occurring in the meatpacking plant. Option 2 seems possible because things do seem very unhealthy there. Option 3 is incorrect because Sinclair mentions nothing about wages, and similarly for option 4, there is nothing about state laws in the letter.

Option 2 is the correct answer. Because of the stimulus (the letter), you don't need to know everything about the history of industrialization in the US and how its rampant growth had the tendency to cause serious health/social/moral etc. problems, but having an overview of it at least can help you answer questions like these faster and with more confidence.

Short Essay

This Short Essay Question is based on the accompanying documents and is designed to test your ability to work with historical documents. Each Short Essay Question set will consist of two documents. Some of these documents have been edited for the purposes of this question. Keep in mind that the language and images used in a document may reflect the historical context of the time in which it was created.

Task: Read and analyze the following documents, applying your social studies knowledge and skills to write a short essay of two or three paragraphs in which you:

In developing your short essay answer of two or three paragraphs, be sure to keep these explanations in mind:

Describe means "to illustrate something in words or tell about it"

Historical Context refers to "the relevant historical circumstances surrounding or connecting the events, ideas, or developments in these documents"

Identify means "to put a name to or to name"

Explain means "to make plain or understandable; to give reasons for or causes of; to show the logical development or relationship of"

Types of Relationships :

Cause refers to "something that contributes to the occurrence of an event, the rise of an idea, or the bringing about of a development"

Effect refers to "what happens as a consequence (result, impact, outcome) of an event, an idea, or a development"

Similarity tells how "something is alike or the same as something else"

Difference tells how "something is not alike or not the same as something else"

Turning Point is "a major event, idea, or historical development that brings about significant change. It can be local, regional, national, or global"

It's important to read the instructions accompanying the documents so you know exactly how to answer the short essays. This example is from the first short essay question, so along with explaining the historical context of the documents, you'll also need to explain the relationship between the documents (for the second short essay question, you'll need to explain biases). Your options for the types of relationships are:

• cause and effect,
• similarity/difference
• turning point

You'll only choose one of these relationships. Key words are explained in the instructions, which we recommend you read through carefully now so you don't waste time doing it on test day. The instructions above are the exact instructions you'll see on your own exam.

Next, read through the two documents, jotting down some brief notes if you like. Document 1 is an excerpt from a press conference where President Eisenhower discusses the importance of Indochina, namely the goods it produces, the danger of a dictatorship to the free world, and the potential of Indochina causing other countries in the region to become communist as well.

Document 2 is an excerpt from the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. It mentions an attack on the US Navy by the communist regime in Vietnam, and it states that while the US desires that there be peace in the region and is reluctant to get involved, Congress approves the President of the United States to "take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression."

Your response should be no more than three paragraphs. For the first paragraph, we recommend discussing the historical context of the two documents. This is where your history knowledge comes in. If you have a strong grasp of the history of this time period, you can discuss how France's colonial reign in Indochina (present-day Vietnam) ended in 1954, which led to a communist regime in the north and a pro-Western democracy in the south. Eisenhower didn't want to get directly involved in Vietnam, but he subscribed to the "domino theory" (Document 1) and believed that if Vietnam became fully communist, other countries in Southeast Asia would as well. Therefore, he supplied the south with money and weapons, which helped cause the outbreak of the Vietnam War.

After Eisenhower, the US had limited involvement in the Vietnam War, but the Gulf of Tonkin incident, where US and North Vietnam ships confronted each other and exchanged fire, led to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (Document 2) and gave President Lyndon B. Johnson powers to send US military forces to Vietnam without an official declaration of war. This led to a large escalation of the US's involvement in Vietnam.

You don't need to know every detail mentioned above, but having a solid knowledge of key US events (like its involvement in the Vietnam War) will help you place documents in their correct historical context.

For the next one to two paragraphs of your response, discuss the relationship of the documents. It's not really a cause and effect relationship, since it wasn't Eisenhower's domino theory that led directly to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, but you could discuss the similarities and differences between the two documents (they're similar because they both show a fear of the entire region becoming communist and a US desire for peace in the area, but they're different because the first is a much more hands-off approach while the second shows significant involvement). You could also argue it's a turning point relationship because the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was the turning point in the US's involvement in the Vietnam War. Up to that point, the US was primarily hands-off (as shown in Document 1). Typically, the relationship you choose is less important than your ability to support your argument with facts and analysis.

Short Answers and Civic Literacy Essay

This Civic Literacy essay is based on the accompanying documents. The question is designed to test your ability to work with historical documents. Some of these documents have been edited for the purpose of this question. As you analyze the documents, take into account the source of each document and any point of view that may be presented in the document. Keep in mind that the language and images used in a document may reflect the historical context of the time in which it was created.

Historical Context: African American Civil Rights

Throughout United States history, many constitutional and civic issues have been debated by Americans. These debates have resulted in efforts by individuals, groups, and governments to address these issues. These efforts have achieved varying degrees of success. One of these constitutional and civic issues is African American civil rights.

Task: Read and analyze the documents. Using information from the documents and your knowledge of United States history, write an essay in which you

Discuss means "to make observations about something using facts, reasoning, and argument; to present in some detail"

Document 1a

Document 1b

• Based on these documents, state one way the end of Reconstruction affected African Americans.
• According to this document, what is one way Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois disagreed about how African Americans should achieve equality?
• According to this document, what is one reason Thurgood Marshall argued that the "separate but equal" ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson should be overturned?

Document 4a

Document 4b

• Based on these documents, state one result of the sit-in at the Greensboro Woolworth.
• According to Henry Louis Gates Jr., what was one result of the 1960s civil rights protests?
• Based on this document, state one impact of the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Start by reading the instructions, then the documents themselves. There are eight of them, all focused on African American civil rights. The short answers and the civic literacy essay use the same documents. We recommend answering the short answer questions first, then completing your essay.

A short answer question follows each document or set of documents. These are straightforward questions than can be answered in 1-2 sentences. Question 1 asks, "Based on these documents, state one way the end of Reconstruction affected African Americans."

Reading through documents 1a and 1b, there are many potential answers. Choose one (don't try to choose more than one to get more points; it won't help and you'll just lose time you could be spending on other questions) for your response. Using information from document 1a, a potential answer could be, "After Reconstruction, African Americans were able to hold many elected positions. This made it possible for them to influence politics and public life more than they had ever been able to before."

Your Civic Literacy essay will be a standard five-paragraph essay, with an introduction, thesis statement, and a conclusion. You'll need to use many of the documents to answer the three bullet points laid out in the instructions. We recommend one paragraph per bullet point. For each paragraph, you'll need to use your knowledge of US history AND information directly from the documents to make your case.

As with the short essay, we recommended devoting a paragraph to each of the bullet points. In the first paragraph, you should discuss how the documents fit into the larger narrative of African American civil rights. You could discuss the effects of Reconstruction, how the industrialization of the North affected blacks, segregation and its impacts, key events in the Civil Rights movement such as the bus boycott in Montgomery and the March on Washington, etc. The key is to use your own knowledge of US history while also discussing the documents and how they tie in.

For the second paragraph, you'll discuss efforts to address African American civil rights. Here you can talk about groups, such as the NAACP (Document 3), specific people such as W.E.B. Du Bois (Document 2), and/or major events, such as the passing of the Civil Rights Act (Document 5).

In the third paragraph, you'll discuss how successful the effort to increase African American civil rights was. Again, use both the documents and your own knowledge to discuss setbacks faced and victories achieved. Your overall opinion will reflect your thesis statement you included at the end of your introductory paragraph. As with the other essays, it matters less what you conclude than how well you are able to support your argument.

3 Tips for Your US History Regents Review

In order to earn a Regents Diploma, you'll need to pass at least one of the social science regents. Here are some tips for passing the US Regents exam.

#1: Focus on Broad Themes, Not Tiny Details

With the revamp of the US History exam, there is much less focus on memorization and basic fact recall. Every question on the exam, including multiple choice, will have a document or excerpt referred to in the questions, so you'll never need to pull an answer out of thin air.

Because you'll never see a question like, "What year did Alabama become a state?" don't waste your time trying to memorize a lot of dates. It's good to have a general idea of when key events occurred, like WWII or the Gilded Age, but i t's much more important that you understand, say, the causes and consequences of WWII rather than the dates of specific battles. The exam tests your knowledge of major themes and changes in US history, so focus on that during your US History Regents review over rote memorization.

#2: Don't Write More Than You Need To

You only need to write one full-length essay for the US History Regents exam, and it's for the final question of the test (the Civic Literacy essay). All other questions (besides multiple choice) only require a few sentences or a few paragraphs.

Don't be tempted to go beyond these guidelines in an attempt to get more points. If a question asks for one example, only give one example; giving more won't get you any additional points, and it'll cause you to lose valuable time. For the two short essay questions, only write three paragraphs each, maximum. The short response questions only require a sentence or two. The questions are carefully designed so that they can be fully answered by responses of this length, so don't feel pressured to write more in an attempt to get a higher score. Quality is much more important than quantity here.

#3: Search the Documents for Clues

As mentioned above, all questions on this test are document-based, and those documents will hold lots of key information in them. Even ones that at first glance don't seem to show a lot, like a poster or photograph, can contain many key details if you have a general idea of what was going on at that point in history. The caption or explanation beneath each document is also often critical to fully understanding it. In your essays and short answers, remember to always refer back to the information you get from these documents to help support your answers.

What's Next?

Taking other Regents exams ? We have guides to the Chemistry , Earth Science , and Living Environment Regents , as well as the Algebra 1 , Algebra 2 , and Geometry Regents .

Need more information on Colonial America? Become an expert by reading our guide to the 13 colonies.

The Platt Amendment was written during another key time in American history. Learn all about this important document, and how it is still influencing Guantanamo Bay, by reading our complete guide to the Platt Amendment .

Christine graduated from Michigan State University with degrees in Environmental Biology and Geography and received her Master's from Duke University. In high school she scored in the 99th percentile on the SAT and was named a National Merit Finalist. She has taught English and biology in several countries.

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The Remarkable Achievements of W.E.B. Du Bois

This essay is about the significant accomplishments of W.E.B. Du Bois, a pioneering scholar, writer, and activist in American history. It highlights his co-founding of the NAACP, his influential role as the editor of The Crisis magazine, and his seminal work, “The Souls of Black Folk,” which introduced the concept of “double consciousness.” The essay also covers Du Bois’ contributions to Pan-Africanism, his groundbreaking sociological research in “The Philadelphia Negro,” and his impact as an educator. Additionally, it touches on his later-life activism, including his advocacy for peace and nuclear disarmament, and his move to Ghana. Du Bois’ legacy as a champion for racial equality and social justice is underscored throughout.

How it works

W.E.B. Du Bois stands as a towering presence in the annals of American history, his contributions as a scholar, scribe, and advocate etching an enduring imprint on the quest for racial parity and societal equity. Born in 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois emerged as the inaugural African American to clinch a Ph.D. from Harvard University. His cerebral acumen and unwavering commitment to justice culminated in noteworthy feats that persist in shaping dialogues on race and fairness in contemporary times.

A pinnacle among Du Bois’ myriad achievements was his co-founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. Assuming a pivotal role within the organization, Du Bois steered its mission to eradicate racial bias and champion civil liberties. He assumed the mantle of editor for the NAACP’s influential periodical, The Crisis, employing its pages as a podium for social reform and as a medium for spotlighting African American concerns. Under his stewardship, The Crisis burgeoned into a resonant voice in the civil rights arena, swaying public opinion and policymaking.

Du Bois’ literary oeuvre stands as a testament to his prolificacy, fundamentally reshaping the narrative on race dynamics in America. His magnum opus, “The Souls of Black Folk,” unveiled in 1903, remains a cornerstone of African American letters and sociological inquiry. Within its pages, Du Bois introduced the concept of “double consciousness,” delineating the inner turmoil confronting African Americans compelled to navigate a society that marginalizes their existence. This conceptual prism endures as a seminal construct in discourses concerning race and selfhood.

An additional salient facet of Du Bois’ legacy is his instrumental role in the propagation of Pan-Africanism. He emerged as a vanguard proponent for the global solidarity and unification of African descent, orchestrating numerous Pan-African Congresses that convened leaders and activists worldwide to confront issues of colonialism, racism, and economic exploitation. His endeavors laid the groundwork for the burgeoning independence movements in African nations and the broader global crusade for the rights of people of African ancestry.

Du Bois’ scholarly contributions were no less momentous. He blazed trails as a pioneering sociologist, his meticulous inquiry and analysis furnishing a nuanced comprehension of the societal milieu confronting African Americans. His seminal 1899 treatise, “The Philadelphia Negro,” stands as the inaugural sociological exploration of a black enclave in the United States. This seminal opus proffered a penetrating scrutiny of the socio-economic tribulations besetting African Americans in Philadelphia, spotlighting the ingrained nature of racial disparity. It persists as a foundational text in the sociological realm.

In tandem with his academic and activist endeavors, Du Bois wielded substantial influence as an educator. His pedagogical purview spanned several institutions, including Wilberforce University, Atlanta University, and Fisk University, where he nurtured and galvanized scores of pupils. His commitment to education transcended the confines of the lecture hall, as he deemed education an indispensable instrument for empowerment and societal metamorphosis.

The resonance of Du Bois’ legacy reverberates in his activism during his twilight years. In the 1950s, he emerged as a vocal critic of the Cold War stratagems of the United States, championing peace and nuclear disarmament. His outspoken dissent precipitated a brief bout of political persecution, yet he remained unwavering in his convictions. In 1961, at the age of 93, Du Bois relocated to Ghana at the behest of President Kwame Nkrumah, where he continued his editorial endeavors on the Encyclopedia Africana until his demise in 1963.

The saga of W.E.B. Du Bois’ triumphs serves as a testament to his unparalleled intellect, resolve, and valor. His multifaceted contributions as a scholar, wordsmith, and advocate not only propelled the cause of racial parity but also laid the intellectual bedrock for successive generations of civil rights protagonists and scholars. Du Bois’ enduring legacy resonates as a poignant reminder of the potency of individual agency in the pursuit of justice and parity. His enduring contributions persist as a wellspring of inspiration and enlightenment, casting him as a preeminent figure in the pantheon of American history.

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• Immigration

America Turned Against Migrant Detention Before. We Can Do It Again

P eople detained without trial. Separated from their children. Denied basic constitutional rights. Unaware of when they will be released or even if they will be released. Subjected to beatings and other torture. Americans have long pinned these abuses to far-off regimes and distant times: Nazi Germany, Pinochet’s Chile, the Soviet Union. In reality, however, in the United States, people are being subjected to such violent and unconstitutional treatment on a daily basis. This is the world of immigrant detention.

Since its inception, detention has been an affront to basic ideals of justice and compassion. It is so by design: when the government first introduced federal immigration detention in 1891, it designated detention facilities as spaces where the Constitution did not reign. According to the law that passed that year, migrants stopped at the border are legally considered to be outside the country. When these “entrants” are detained in the U.S. while the government decides their fate, they are to be treated as if they are not here.  This is the case whether the detention centers are near the border or deep within the country. The detention centers exist on the U.S. map, but the “entrants” within them are presumed to be held outside the nation. Since they are “not here,” those detained are not guaranteed basic constitutional protections—even when subjected to the law and force of the state.

The U.S. was founded on the notion that people have “cer­tain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pur­suit of Happiness.” The Fifth Amendment echoed this assertion, stating that “no person” should “be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” The amendment did not speak in terms of citizens but in terms of persons, and it was unambiguous: people deserved due process before being deprived of liberty. In 1798, Thomas Jefferson ex­plicitly wrote: “Habeas Corpus secures every man here, alien or citizen, against everything which is not law.”

Jefferson was clear on his point that foreigners deserved due process, but perhaps he and the other Founding Fathers should have been more specific about what they meant by the seemingly unequivocal term “here.” After all, slightly over a century later Congress passed the 1891 law by which those stopped at the border were to be considered not “here.” This doctrine, which came to be known as the “entry fiction,” continues to dictate conditions for asylum seekers and migrants stopped at the border to this day.

Read More: The Deadly Digital Frontiers at the Border

Abuse and dehumanization have occurred no matter when, how, or why detention was being used— they are intrinsic to the system. Between the end of the 19 th century and the mid-1950s, de­tention was conceived as a means of enforcing the nation’s exclusionary laws. At the time, the government sought to exclude from entry those migrants it considered undesirable, such as Chinese laborers, and those deemed to be “idiots,” “insane,” or likely to become a public charge. Migrants were detained while officials determined whether these foreign nationals had the right to enter the country or not. The purpose of detention was not to hurt the new arrivals, but the system nonetheless did. Migrants were incarcerated without knowing why or when they would be released. They were held in conditions so terrible that many died by suicide. Guards regularly beat them. Those detained lived in a world where spending time out­side was rare, windows were barred, and quarters were overcrowded. At these sites, children were often separated from their parents and guardians.

In 1954, government officials decided that there were more compassionate and effective ways to deal with the migrants who were coming to America than caging them. The vast majority of new arrivals could be released on conditional “parole,” the term used for pretrial release in immigration cases, while their cases were being reviewed. Detention, officials held, was to be reserved for migrants who were deemed likely to abscond or who posed a threat to national security or public safety. In 1958, the Supreme Court, in Leng May Ma v. Barber , even held that “physical detention of aliens is now the exception, not the rule,” and pointed out that “certainly this policy reflects the humane qualities of an enlightened civilization.”

But this more “enlightened” drive only lasted until 1980, when over 124,000 Cubans arrived in America on the Mariel Boatlift. Soon thereafter the Reagan administration reintroduced detention in full force. It also changed its logic. Previously, immigrants had been detained while the government decided whether they could stay or be deported; now the explicit goal of detention became to deter future migrants from embarking for the U.S. in the first place. Harm became detention’s ready weapon. The emotional and physical abuse, suicides, and other deaths inside detention facilities rose dramatically.

Beyond its incalculable human costs and its erosion of our legal and ethical principles, detention is also financially costly. Throughout America’s history, the federal government has spent vast sums to keep migrants behind bars. In the 2018 fiscal year, the country spent over $3 billion on immigrant detention. That money could have been used for myriad other purposes. That very year, the enacted budget of the Envi­ronmental Protection Agency was $8.8 billion — only three times more than the amount the government used to detain nearly 400 thousand migrants among a nation of over 300 million peo­ple . If those immigrants had been freed into the custody of their families and friends, that money could have been used to further protect the na­tion’s water, reduce pollution, clean up toxic lands, and safeguard human health.

Many Americans believe that detaining foreign arrivals while the government determines if they have a right to enter the coun­try is an indispensable practice. Otherwise, the thinking goes, unautho­rized migrants will abscond and vanish among the American populace. This logic resembles the government’s reasoning for detaining arrivals before 1954. But hard evidence in both our nation’s history and our pres­ent shows that this reasoning is fallacious. In the years between 1954 and 1980, when the government spoke against detention, U.S. officials released most non-Mexican entrants on parole instead of imprisoning them, knowing that the vast majority of released mi­grants would not flee.

Similarly, current data suggests that most migrants released today appear in court when required, which means that there is no need to detain them. Multiple studies have shown that approximately 88% of all non-detained individuals attended their court hearings in the past two decades, including in recent years. That percentage rose to about 98% among those with legal representation or among asylum seekers regardless of whether they had access to legal counsel or not.

Detention is also useless as a means of deterrence. It never stopped foreign nationals from coming to the U.S.. No matter how long migrants were detained or how cruel the system was, they kept coming, because the situations in their home countries were even more dire. For instance, during the years of Chinese exclusion, Chinese mi­grants knew that they would be detained upon arrival. They still boarded the ships heading to America. The same phenomenon occurred over and over again with migrants who came from different parts of the world at different times. In the 1980s, Haitian refugees were aware that the U.S. government would in­carcerate them if the Coast Guard caught them, but migrating was a matter of life and death so they came. Central American asylum seekers have long fled to the U.S. although they are aware that they might be detained in freezing rooms under dehumanizing conditions. Even Trump’s draconian family separation policy, which was intended to curtail migration, failed in its goal: the year after it was introduced, apprehensions along the US‑Mexico border were 88 percent higher than the year before. Migrants had continued to come. The most inhumane form of deterrence yet imagined failed in its intended goal.

Thankfully, America’s history does not only show the costs, violence, and futility inherent in detention, but it also provides us with potential alternatives. In the years between 1954 and 1980, U.S. leaders spoke forcefully against immigrant incarceration. Like In those years, parole continues to offer the most viable alternative to the costly, inhumane, and ineffective system of detention, at least until there is a complete overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws.

Detaining migrants is pointless. The human pain it causes is unnec­essary. The money used is wasted. Immigrant detention has never been effective in its intended goal whether this is exclusion or deterrence. Rather than caging migrants and refugees, the government should simply release them and allow them to reside with friends, family, or community members in the U.S. while it examines their cases.

From IN THE SHADOW OF LIBERTY by Ana Raquel Minian, published by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright © 2024 by Ana Raquel Minian.

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Jamie Raskin: How to Force Justices Alito and Thomas to Recuse Themselves in the Jan. 6 Cases

By Jamie Raskin

Mr. Raskin represents Maryland’s Eighth Congressional District in the House of Representatives. He taught constitutional law for more than 25 years and was the lead prosecutor in the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump.

Many people have gloomily accepted the conventional wisdom that because there is no binding Supreme Court ethics code, there is no way to force Associate Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas to recuse themselves from the Jan. 6 cases that are before the court.

Justices Alito and Thomas are probably making the same assumption.

But all of them are wrong.

It seems unfathomable that the two justices could get away with deciding for themselves whether they can be impartial in ruling on cases affecting Donald Trump’s liability for crimes he is accused of committing on Jan. 6. Justice Thomas’s wife, Ginni Thomas, was deeply involved in the Jan. 6 “stop the steal” movement. Above the Virginia home of Justice Alito and his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, flew an upside-down American flag — a strong political statement among the people who stormed the Capitol. Above the Alitos’ beach home in New Jersey flew another flag that has been adopted by groups opposed to President Biden.

Justices Alito and Thomas face a groundswell of appeals beseeching them not to participate in Trump v. United States , the case that will decide whether Mr. Trump enjoys absolute immunity from criminal prosecution, and Fischer v. United States , which will decide whether Jan. 6 insurrectionists — and Mr. Trump — can be charged under a statute that criminalizes “corruptly” obstructing an official proceeding. (Justice Alito said on Wednesday that he would not recuse himself from Jan. 6-related cases.)

Everyone assumes that nothing can be done about the recusal situation because the highest court in the land has the lowest ethical standards — no binding ethics code or process outside of personal reflection. Each justice decides for him- or herself whether he or she can be impartial.

Of course, Justices Alito and Thomas could choose to recuse themselves — wouldn’t that be nice? But begging them to do the right thing misses a far more effective course of action.

The U.S. Department of Justice — including the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, an appointed U.S. special counsel and the solicitor general, all of whom were involved in different ways in the criminal prosecutions underlying these cases and are opposing Mr. Trump’s constitutional and statutory claims — can petition the other seven justices to require Justices Alito and Thomas to recuse themselves not as a matter of grace but as a matter of law.

The Justice Department and Attorney General Merrick Garland can invoke two powerful textual authorities for this motion: the Constitution of the United States, specifically the due process clause, and the federal statute mandating judicial disqualification for questionable impartiality, 28 U.S.C. Section 455. The Constitution has come into play in several recent Supreme Court decisions striking down rulings by stubborn judges in lower courts whose political impartiality has been reasonably questioned but who threw caution to the wind to hear a case anyway. This statute requires potentially biased judges throughout the federal system to recuse themselves at the start of the process to avoid judicial unfairness and embarrassing controversies and reversals.

The constitutional and statutory standards apply to Supreme Court justices. The Constitution, and the federal laws under it, is the “ supreme law of the land ,” and the recusal statute explicitly treats Supreme Court justices as it does other judges: “Any justice, judge or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” The only justices in the federal judiciary are the ones on the Supreme Court.

This recusal statute, if triggered, is not a friendly suggestion. It is Congress’s command, binding on the justices, just as the due process clause is. The Supreme Court cannot disregard this law just because it directly affects one or two of its justices. Ignoring it would trespass on the constitutional separation of powers because the justices would essentially be saying that they have the power to override a congressional command.

When the arguments are properly before the court, Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh and Sonia Sotomayor will have both a constitutional obligation and a statutory obligation to enforce recusal standards.

Indeed, there is even a compelling argument based on case law that Chief Justice Roberts and the other unaffected justices should raise the matter of recusal on their own, or sua sponte. Numerous circuit courts have agreed with the Eighth Circuit that this is the right course of action when members of an appellate court are aware of “ overt acts ” of a judge reflecting personal bias. Cases like this stand for the idea that appellate jurists who see something should say something instead of placing all the burden on parties in a case who would have to risk angering a judge by bringing up the awkward matter of potential bias and favoritism on the bench.

But even if no member of the court raises the issue of recusal, the urgent need to deal with it persists. Once it is raised, the court would almost surely have to find that the due process clause and Section 455 compel Justices Alito and Thomas to recuse themselves. To arrive at that substantive conclusion, the justices need only read their court’s own recusal decisions.

In one key 5-to-3 Supreme Court case from 2016, Williams v. Pennsylvania, Justice Anthony Kennedy explained why judicial bias is a defect of constitutional magnitude and offered specific objective standards for identifying it. Significantly, Justices Alito and Thomas dissented from the majority’s ruling.

The case concerned the bias of the chief justice of Pennsylvania, who had been involved as a prosecutor on the state’s side in an appellate death penalty case that was before him. Justice Kennedy found that the judge’s refusal to recuse himself when asked to do so violated due process. Justice Kennedy’s authoritative opinion on recusal illuminates three critical aspects of the current controversy.

First, Justice Kennedy found that the standard for recusal must be objective because it is impossible to rely on the affected judge’s introspection and subjective interpretations. The court’s objective standard requires recusal when the likelihood of bias on the part of the judge “is too high to be constitutionally tolerable,” citing an earlier case. “This objective risk of bias,” according to Justice Kennedy, “is reflected in the due process maxim that ‘no man can be a judge in his own case.’” A judge or justice can be convinced of his or her own impartiality but also completely missing what other people are seeing.

Second, the Williams majority endorsed the American Bar Association’s Model Code of Judicial Conduct as an appropriate articulation of the Madisonian standard that “no man can be a judge in his own cause.” Model Code Rule 2.11 on judicial disqualification says that a judge “shall disqualify himself or herself in any proceeding in which the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” This includes, illustratively, cases in which the judge “has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party,” a married judge knows that “the judge’s spouse” is “a person who has more than a de minimis interest that could be substantially affected by the proceeding” or the judge “has made a public statement, other than in a court proceeding, judicial decision or opinion, that commits or appears to commit the judge to reach a particular result.” These model code illustrations ring a lot of bells at this moment.

Third and most important, Justice Kennedy found for the court that the failure of an objectively biased judge to recuse him- or herself is not “harmless error” just because the biased judge’s vote is not apparently determinative in the vote of a panel of judges. A biased judge contaminates the proceeding not just by the casting and tabulation of his or her own vote but by participating in the body’s collective deliberations and affecting, even subtly, other judges’ perceptions of the case.

Justice Kennedy was emphatic on this point : “It does not matter whether the disqualified judge’s vote was necessary to the disposition of the case. The fact that the interested judge’s vote was not dispositive may mean only that the judge was successful in persuading most members of the court to accept his or her position — an outcome that does not lessen the unfairness to the affected party.”

Courts generally have found that any reasonable doubts about a judge’s partiality must be resolved in favor of recusal. A judge “shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” While recognizing that the “challenged judge enjoys a margin of discretion,” the courts have repeatedly held that “doubts ordinarily ought to be resolved in favor of recusal.” After all, the reputation of the whole tribunal and public confidence in the judiciary are both on the line.

Judge David Tatel of the D.C. Circuit emphasized this fundamental principle in 2019 when his court issued a writ of mandamus to force recusal of a military judge who blithely ignored at least the appearance of a glaring conflict of interest. He stated : “Impartial adjudicators are the cornerstone of any system of justice worthy of the label. And because ‘deference to the judgments and rulings of courts depends upon public confidence in the integrity and independence of judges,’ jurists must avoid even the appearance of partiality.” He reminded us that to perform its high function in the best way, as Justice Felix Frankfurter stated, “justice must satisfy the appearance of justice.”

The Supreme Court has been especially disposed to favor recusal when partisan politics appear to be a prejudicial factor even when the judge’s impartiality has not been questioned. In Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co. , from 2009, the court held that a state supreme court justice was constitutionally disqualified from a case in which the president of a corporation appearing before him had helped to get him elected by spending $3 million promoting his campaign. The court, through Justice Kennedy, asked whether, quoting a 1975 decision, “under a realistic appraisal of psychological tendencies and human weakness,” the judge’s obvious political alignment with a party in a case “poses such a risk of actual bias or prejudgment that the practice must be forbidden if the guarantee of due process is to be adequately implemented.”

The federal statute on disqualification, Section 455(b) , also makes recusal analysis directly applicable to bias imputed to a spouse’s interest in the case. Ms. Thomas and Mrs. Alito (who, according to Justice Alito, is the one who put up the inverted flag outside their home) meet this standard. A judge must recuse him- or herself when a spouse “is known by the judge to have an interest in a case that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding.”

At his Senate confirmation hearing, Chief Justice Roberts assured America that “judges are like umpires.”

But professional baseball would never allow an umpire to continue to officiate the World Series after learning that the pennant of one of the two teams competing was flying in the front yard of the umpire’s home. Nor would an umpire be allowed to call balls and strikes in a World Series game after the umpire’s wife tried to get the official score of a prior game in the series overthrown and canceled out to benefit the losing team. If judges are like umpires, then they should be treated like umpires, not team owners, fans or players.

Justice Barrett has said she wants to convince people “that this court is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks.” Justice Alito himself declared the importance of judicial objectivity in his opinion for the majority in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overruling Roe v. Wade — a bit of self-praise that now rings especially hollow.

But the Constitution and Congress’s recusal statute provide the objective framework of analysis and remedy for cases of judicial bias that are apparent to the world, even if they may be invisible to the judges involved. This is not really optional for the justices.

I look forward to seeing seven members of the court act to defend the reputation and integrity of the institution.

Jamie Raskin, a Democrat, represents Maryland’s Eighth Congressional District in the House of Representatives. He taught constitutional law for more than 25 years and was the lead prosecutor in the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump.

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A producer on The Apprentice alleges Trump used the n-word

An explosive new essay published in Slate on Thursday raises new allegations about former President Donald Trump’s behavior on the set of The Apprentice , renewing focus on his history of racist comments and misconduct toward women . 

The piece, by Bill Pruitt, a former producer on the reality show, claims Trump used the n-word to describe a Black contestant named Kwame Jackson, and describes how he openly commented on women’s appearances. 

The allegations are at once shocking … and not. They echo much of what’s known about Trump based both on his public behavior and reports about his private conduct. The piece also revives a past allegation about the former president using the racial slur, this time offering testimony from a direct source who purportedly witnessed it. 

A Trump campaign spokesperson, in a response to Pruitt, has denied the essay’s claims. 

Black voters and women are both groups that Trump has sought to make inroads with this year as the 2024 election is expected to be extremely close. Whether the essay alters any voters’ perceptions of Trump remains to be seen, particularly as the version of Trump portrayed in the piece doesn’t differ greatly from his public persona . But even if Pruitt’s piece doesn’t affect how voters see the former president, it’s putting his troubling track record into the spotlight once more. 

Pruitt claims there are recordings of Trump saying unsavory things 

Pruitt’s essay focuses on how Apprentice producers were able to make Trump appear like a successful and commanding businessperson despite his bumbling persona and well-established history of scamming those he worked with. 

In the piece, Pruitt describes the ways in which editing, offscreen coaching, and sets were used to establish Trump’s business acumen and to obscure sexist and racist comments that he made. 

“We scammed. We swindled. Nobody heard the racist and misogynistic comments or saw the alleged cheating, the bluffing, or his hair taking off in the wind,” Pruitt writes. 

Below are some of the specific examples Pruitt cites: 

• Racist comments: Pruitt says that there is a tape of Trump using the n-word to describe Jackson, a Black Goldman Sachs banker, as the judges are discussing who should win the first season of The Apprentice. 

According to Pruitt, Carolyn Kepcher, one of Trump’s employees who advised him on the show, argued that Jackson did a strong job with the season’s final challenge, and he deserved to win. 

“Yeah,” Trump allegedly said, “but, I mean, would America buy a n— winning?”

Pruitt says that Kepcher’s face reddened, but producers and those in the room simply glossed over the comment and continued with the taping. He adds that such statements were cut from the show and that he does not believe those tapes will ever come to light. 

• Treatment of women: Trump’s comments about women, including staff on the show as well as contestants, are also called out in the essay. 

Pruitt claims that Trump prevented one camera operator from getting on the elevator with him, stating that she’s too “heavy” and openly commented on another’s looks, saying “that’s all I want to look at.” He also says that Trump described a contestant, as “the one with the …” while gesturing toward his chest. 

• Scamming workers: In recent years, there have been a number of reports about Trump shortchanging contractors. Pruitt says he learned of this firsthand while filming the show after meeting an architect at Trump National Golf Club, who described being stiffed for half the cost of the work he did.  

The essay may not change anyone’s mind about Trump, but it still matters

Many of the issues the piece raises are familiar ones. 

In office, and on the campaign trail, Trump has been well-known for racist remarks , including describing Haiti and El Salvador as “shithole” countries , and threatening violence toward Black Lives Matter protesters . His policies, too, have taken aim at immigrant families and promoting diversity training in the workplace . Trump’s misogyny has been long established as well, with more than 20 women accusing him of sexual misconduct and a bombshell Access Hollywood video featuring him bragging about sexually assaulting women. 

The piece treads similar ground. And for many of his core supporters, in particular, these revelations are unlikely to change their support of him. 

The essay does, however, reignite discussion of Trump’s attitudes toward women and minorities as he tries to win over pivotal swing voters in 2024. In 2020, suburban women were a major group that boosted President Joe Biden in key swing states while Trump made marginal gains with Black male voters . 

Pruitt’s piece points to key vulnerabilities Trump still has with these groups, and is a reminder of how his history could make improving his standing with them an uphill battle. 

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Shine Light Through Cracks in a Worldview

Review: ‘morning after the revolution’ by nellie bowles.

More By Andrew Spencer

Schadenfreude is a sense of pleasure that comes from someone else’s misfortune. There are corners of the internet that exist to laugh at the hypocrisy and inconsistencies of the cultural left, delighting when people’s intellectual world is shattered by reality. It’s easy to feel superior when our critiques are validated, but reading books that slam our ideological opponents can tempt us to pride if we’re not careful.

In Morning After the Revolution: Dispatches from the Wrong Side of History , Nellie Bowles documents the self-destructive excesses of the New Progressive movement. It’s tempting to read her account just to taste progressive tears. Part memoir, part exposé, her story lacks analytical rigor, but it reveals cracks in the progressive worldview that will let light through.

Morning After the Revolution: Dispatches from the Wrong Side of History

Nellie bowles.

In Morning After the Revolution , Bowles gives readers a front-row seat to the absurd drama of a political movement gone mad. With irreverent accounts of attending a multiday course on “The Toxic Trends of Whiteness,” following the social justice activists who run “Abolitionist Entertainment LLC,” and trying to please the  New York Times ’s “disinformation czar,” she deftly exposes the more comic excesses of a movement that went from a sideshow to the very center of American life.

Barely Heretical

Bowles was formerly a writer for the New York Times. She now writes for The Free Press, working for Bari Weiss, a woman to whom she’s legally married. Despite Bowles’s progressive bona fides, her association with the supposedly anti-ideological media company positions this debut book as edgy and provocative, as if she’s part of an intellectual dissent against the ideas of New Progressivism. In fact, she continues to affirm the central tenets of the movement, though s he is critical of its sometimes absurd hypocrisy. Thus the Publishers Weekly ’ s   review isn’t fair when it pans the book as “a toothless recap of anti-woke talking points.”

Inasmuch as it is a coherent movement, New Progressivism is a reaction to older forms of cultural liberalism. The emphasis in the movement’s name should be on the word “new” because “progress” requires a definable goal, which New Progressivism lacks. As Bowles shows, the primary purpose of the movement is to leave the past behind, even if that past occurred mere months ago. Any notion of truth and justice is inherently fluid for New Progressivism. It’s chronological snobbery on steroids.

This book is likely to gain attention among conservatives because it riles some on the cultural left. As the old saying goes, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Yet this isn’t a conservative manifesto. It isn’t a manifesto at all. It’s a journalistic account of some obvious excesses of New Progressivism, written by someone pushed out by the movement’s rabid resistance to internal diversity.

By her account, Bowles was nudged out of the movement because she wouldn’t publicly attack a friend for dissenting from the latest vibe. She was exhausted from the drama. Describing her fatigue with the movement, she concludes, “I couldn’t prioritize the political over the personal. I couldn’t be a good soldier” (239).

Bowles was barely heretical, but that was enough to earn exile from a movement that requires ideological purity. Yet as she states throughout the book, she has rethought none of her positions; she has merely softened her posture toward those who disagree.

For Christian readers, the sliver of redeeming value in Morning After comes from Bowles’s underdeveloped observations of her worldview’s inability to improve the human condition.

Cracked Foundation

The New Progressive movement, according to Bowles, comes “with politics built on the idea that people are profoundly good, denatured only by capitalism, by colonialism and whiteness and heteronormativity” (xv). Its roots are in a Rousseauian concept of humanity built onto a Marxist scaffold that pits oppressor against oppressed on a treadmill of grievances.

Despite those philosophies’ perpetually bloody histories, their utopian hopes and fear of being ostracized cause some progressive journalists to turn a blind eye to excesses. As Bowles recounts, “If anything going on in the movement looked anything but perfect, the good reporter knew not to look” (xx).

Bowles reveals some of the bankruptcy of New Progressivism is in her description of the decline of her hometown, San Francisco, “where every progressive idea bumping around America came to be tried out” (189). And yet, despite the city’s efforts to be good, “the reality is that with the smartest minds and so much money and the very best intentions, San Francisco became a cruel city. It became so dogmatically progressive that maintaining the purity of the politics required accepting—or at least ignoring—devastating results” (192).

In response, Bowles appeals to “common sense” (201) and “reality” (213). Her critique made me think there was some redemptive shift in progress in her thinking, but it never materializes. She never recognizes the need for an objective truth. Rather, Bowles appeals merely to personal comfort and utilitarian calculus toward an undefined concept of “good.”

She never recognizes the need for an objective truth. Rather, Bowles appeals merely to personal comfort and utilitarian calculus toward an undefined concept of ‘good.’

Meanwhile, by her account, tent cities filled with activists demand the abolition of the police. Yet the activists have to create their own armed security squads to enforce community norms. Additionally, supposedly good activists so frequently lash out against their neighbors—even those who provide material support to them—that, because of the diminished police engagement, “there are twice as many private security guards in America today as there were twenty years ago” (112). The breadcrumbs lead down an obvious path, but Bowles doesn’t follow the trail far. And yet, careful readers will see where the path leads.

Toward the end of the book, Bowles recognizes that what she witnessed “is just the human condition. . . . Liberalism, tolerance, living among and working with people we disagree with? That is what is completely unnatural” (236). However, other than lamenting the movement’s tendency to “eat its own” (234), she basically ends where she starts. She still seems to believe that, despite its rotten fruit, the ideas of New Progressivism are basically good as long as they aren’t taken too far. She argues, “The movement fell apart because of how fully it succeeded” (237). Or, maybe, it fell apart because its foundation is cracked.

Illuminating the Dark

The book is likely to gain some traction in politically conservative circles because it throws an egg on the face of the cultural left. But the real value is that it reveals the cracks in a worldview that can let the light of the gospel through.

The real value of this book is that it reveals the cracks in a worldview that can let the light of the gospel through.

Beneath her accounts of the movement’s excesses, we see a deep desire for redemption and for a sense that cultural sins can be propitiated. Yet New Progressivism offers no hope because it misunderstands the human condition.

In contrast, Christianity teaches that humans aren’t as bad as they could be ( common grace ) but that every aspect of culture is affected by sin ( total depravity ). These fundamental truths explain why the utopian visions of New Progressivism can never work. Moreover, they reveal the problem is supernatural, which means it can’t ultimately be overcome by better policies and character education. Those measures can help, but humanity needs a radical renewal that only comes through God’s power. The gospel offers that renewal. Christians have the best explanation for the problem and the only real solution to it.

Books like Morning After the Revolution are useful when they reveal the God-shaped hole in the human heart. If Christians are attentive, we’ll read books like this to equip us to communicate the gospel in a way that shines the light of grace through the cracks of a fractured worldview.

Andrew Spencer (PhD, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) serves as associate editor for books at The Gospel Coalition. He is the author of Hope for God’s Creation: Stewardship in an Age of Futility and Doctrine in Shades of Green: Theological Perspective for Environmental Ethics , editor of The Christian Mind of C. S. Lewis: Essays in Honor of Michael Travers , and a contributor to Baptist Political Theology . Spencer is an elder at CrossPointe Church . He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children and live in southeast Michigan.

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