The Conversation

With its executive order targeting the Smithsonian, the Trump administration opens up a new front in the history wars

Written by Jennifer Tucker, Professor of History, Wesleyan University

A portrait of President Donald Trump in the 'America’s Presidents' exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery.Win McNamee/Getty Images

I teach history in Connecticut, but I grew up in Oklahoma and Kansas, where my interest in the subject was sparked by visits to local museums.

I fondly remember trips to the Fellow-Ree...

Christian Zionism hasn’t always been a conservative evangelical creed – churches’ views of Israel have evolved over decades

Written by Shalom Goldman, Professor of Religion, Middlebury

Participants in a 'United for Israel' march, led by The Pursuit NW Christian Church, stand on the University of Washington's campus in May 2024.Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images

During confirmation hearings, Mike Huckabee, President Donald Trump’s nominee as ambassador to Israel, told senators that he would “respect and represent the...

Schools and communities can help children bounce back after distressing disasters like the LA wildfires

Written by Rita V. Burke, Associate Professor of Clinical Population and Public Health Sciences, University of Southern California

The 2025 Los Angeles wildfires reduced more than 15,000 structures to ash in a matter of days. Among the devastation were 11 public and private schools and 30 child care facilities. In all, the fires disrupted the education and daily lives of over 700,000 students.

The fires first erupted on Jan. 7, 2025, in the Pacific Palisades, a small enclave...

Why a presidential term limit got written into the Constitution – the story of the 22nd Amendment

Written by Mark Satta, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Law, Wayne State University

No president other than Franklin D. Roosevelt has held office for more than two terms. Walter Leporati/Getty Images

Only one person, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, has ever served more than two terms as president of the United States. This is for two reasons.

First, prior to Roosevelt’s election to a third term in 1940 there was a longstanding...

America the secular? What a changing religious landscape means for US politics

Written by David Campbell, Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy, University of Notre Dame

Conventional wisdom about nonreligious Americans' voting misses some important distinctions.Sarah Rice/Getty Images

After climbing for decades, the percentage of Americans with no religion has leveled off. For the past few years, the share of adults who identify as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” has stood at about 29%,...

Land reparations are possible − and over 225 US communities are already working to make amends for slavery and colonization

Written by Sara Safransky, Associate Professor, Department of Human and Organizational Development, Vanderbilt University

Ever since the United States government’s unfulfilled promise of giving every newly freed Black American “40 acres and a mule” after the Civil War, descendants of the enslaved have repeatedly proposed the idea of redistributing land to redress the nation’s legacies of slavery.

Land-based reparations are also a form of redres...

Planned blackouts are becoming more common − and not having cash on hand could cost you

Written by Jay L. Zagorsky, Associate Professor Questrom School of Business, Boston University

Are you prepared for when the power goes out? To prevent massive wildfires in drought-prone, high-wind areas, electrical companies have begun preemptively shutting off electricity. These planned shutdowns are called public safety power shutoffs, abbreviated to PSPS, and they’re increasingly common. So far this year, we’ve seen them in T...

GOP lawmakers eye SNAP cuts, which would scale back benefits that help low-income people buy food at a time of high food prices

Written by Tracy Roof, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Richmond

A shopper who gets SNAP benefits shops for groceries at a supermarket in Bellflower, Calif., on Feb. 13, 2023.AP Photo/Allison Dinner

Congress may soon consider whether to cut spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the main way the government helps low-income Americans put food on the table. The Conversation U.S. asked Tracy Roof...

US earthquake safety relies on federal employees’ expertise

Written by Jonathan P. Stewart, Professor of Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles

The 6.9 magnitude Loma Prieta earthquake near San Francisco in 1989 caused about $6.8 billion in damage and 63 deaths.J.K. Nakata/U.S. Geological Survey

Earthquakes and the damage they cause are apolitical. Collectively, we either prepare for future earthquakes or the population eventually pays the price. The earthquakes that struck Myanmar on...

Stone tool discovery in China shows people in East Asia were innovating during the Middle Paleolithic, like in Europe and Middle East

Written by Ben Marwick, Professor of Archaeology, University of Washington

The artifacts found at Longtan, southwest China, were as old as 60,000 years.Qijun Ruan

New technologies today often involve electronic devices that are smaller and smarter than before. During the Middle Paleolithic, when Neanderthals were modern humans’ neighbors, new technologies meant something quite different: new kinds of stone tools...