Jeff Shesol / Writing

The Rise and Fall of a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan

In a new book, Timothy Egan traces the Klan’s expansion in the 1920s across American political and civic life. Then its leader, David C. Stephenson, committed murder.

Review for the New York Times

Politics

When Freedom Meant the Freedom to Oppress Others

Jefferson Cowie’s powerful and sobering new history, Freedom’s Dominion, traces the close association between the rhetoric of liberty in an Alabama county and the politics of white supremacy.

Book Review for The New York Times

Politics

Don’t Cede the Space Race to China and the Billionaires

Humans, not just our inventions, should roam the heavens.

Essay for the New York Times

The Supreme Court

The Willful Naïveté of Stephen Breyer

No one has been more insistent than Justice Breyer that politics do not shape the decisions of justices — that whoever put them on the court and how, justices are noncombatants in partisan wars.

Essay for the New York Times

Buy the Books

Mercury Rising

John Glenn, John Kennedy, and the New Battleground of the Cold War

Supreme Power

Franklin Roosevelt vs. the Supreme Court

Mutual Contempt

Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, and the Feud that Defined a Decade

The Presidency

Book Review: Did John F. Kennedy and the Democrats Steal the 1960 Election?

In Campaign of the Century, Irwin Gellman seeks to upend our understanding of the 1960 race, not least the matter of which man won it.

Review for the New York Times

The Presidency

Book Review: The Best of the Kennedys?

“Ted’s time at center stage, so much longer than Bobby’s, was more varied, consisting of numerous acts, twists, turns and apparent endings.” Jeff Shesol reviews Neal Gabler’s book Catching the Wind.

Review for the New York Times

The Supreme Court

The Case Against Packing the Court

A costly fight over the number of Supreme Court justices could put a stop to any real hope for reform under Joe Biden.

Essay in The New Republic

The Supreme Court

Writing

The Rise and Fall of a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan

When Freedom Meant the Freedom to Oppress Others

Don’t Cede the Space Race to China and the Billionaires

The Willful Naïveté of Stephen Breyer

Book Review: Did John F. Kennedy and the Democrats Steal the 1960 Election?

Book Review: The Best of the Kennedys?

The Case Against Packing the Court

Would Trump Consider a Court-Packing Scheme?

The Supreme Court Takes Up a Major Gerrymandering Case

Will Republicans Fight to Shrink the Supreme Court?

Book Review: Opening the Door to a Conservative Court

Amity Shlaes’s Anti-New Deal Graphic Novel

Book Review: “The Great War” by Joe Sacco

Book Review: “The Comics,” an Illustrated History of the Funny Papers

Book Review: The Founders Look at Modern America

Lyndon Johnson’s Unsung Role in Sending Americans to the Moon

Book Review: Why Another Arthur Schlesinger, Presidential Historian, Is Unlikely

What Kind of Loyalty Does a President Need?

Can President Trump Learn on the Job?

When Presidents Think About Defying the Courts

Will Trump Be Reaganesque in All the Wrong Ways?

Six Books for Insight on a Trump Presidency

Not So Bully Pulpit

Obama’s Role on Clinton’s Team

All the Presidents’ Pens

Trump Abandons the Bully Pulpit

Trump’s Speech to Congress Was Not “Normal”

How Newt Gingrich Made Nastiness a Virtue

Book Review: The Presidential Election That America Lost

How Offending People and Lying on the Political Stage Became a Mark of Integrity

What Bernie Sanders Can Learn from Britain’s Bernie Sanders