The hottest US History Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top History Topics

Top Links 1033 The Midwest stabilizes. Globalization wars. John Nash drowning in books. On violence and Keynes.

Chartbook • 557 implied HN points • 06 Mar 26
đź’ľ History US History
  1. The U.S. Midwest is finally stopping its long population drain and appears to be stabilizing after years of people moving south.
  2. Political and economic tensions over globalization are escalating, with growing pushback against deeper global integration.
  3. Scholars and writers are producing a lot of new work on major thinkers—there’s a surge of books about John Nash and renewed debate about Keynes, including links between economics and violence.

A demonstration at Shippingport

The Works in Progress Newsletter • 19 implied HN points • 05 Mar 26
đź’ľ History US History
  1. Admiral Hyman Rickover was the driving force behind America’s entry into nuclear power, pushing pressurized-water reactors for submarines and leading the Shippingport civilian reactor project.
  2. Shippingport was the first full-scale U.S. civilian nuclear plant built as a government-industry demonstration; it proved the technology but was costly and not yet economical, while creating much of the industrial know‑how for later reactors.
  3. Nuclear power grew out of wartime weapons programs and Cold War politics, and policy choices—like Eisenhower’s Atoms for Peace and the 1954 Atomic Energy Act—shifted development toward private industry even as concerns about safety, cost, and proliferation persisted.

The Big Picture

John’s Substack • 11 implied HN points • 08 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics US History
  1. The University of Chicago's Graham School has a strong extension program.
  2. On March 3, 2026 John J. Mearsheimer did a long interview with Jennifer Lind.
  3. They discussed major issues spanning the last 250 years of U.S. foreign policy.

January 9, 2026

Letters from an American • 43 implied HN points • 10 Jan 26
đź’ľ History US History
  1. Fascism is rule by a small elite that seizes control of political, economic, social, and cultural life, suppresses civil liberties, and uses force, racism, and warlike propaganda to stay in power.
  2. Fascists rise by dividing people through hate campaigns, pitting religious, racial, and economic groups against one another, promoting extreme nationalism, and labeling opponents as enemies while dressing their message in patriotic language.
  3. Preventing fascism means being alert and active in defending democracy: protect everyone's rights, fight indifference and ignorance, make democratic institutions work, and support international cooperation.

MY LAI, AND ITS OMENS

Seymour Hersh • 58 implied HN points • 26 Dec 25
đź’ľ History US History
  1. US soldiers in 1968 killed large numbers of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai and nearby hamlets, and very few people were held accountable for those massacres.
  2. A Pentagon Inspector General study in 1967 found that many troops didn’t understand the Geneva Conventions and some admitted they would mistreat or kill prisoners; that report was rewritten or shelved and not acted on.
  3. The failure to train, enforce, and respond to those warnings helped create conditions for atrocities and cover-ups, highlighting a need for stronger training and accountability in wartime.
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December 28, 2025

Letters from an American • 29 implied HN points • 29 Dec 25
đź’ľ History US History
  1. Soldiers turned a surrendered Lakota camp into a massacre, firing into the camp and then hunting down men, women, and children, killing roughly 250 people.
  2. The Lakota had surrendered and were cooperating the night before, so there was still a real chance to prevent the slaughter if commanders had acted differently.
  3. The episode shows how fear, escalation, and poor decisions can produce preventable atrocities, and it reminds us that studying the past matters because the future can still be changed.

Unfounding founding fathers

Douglass’s Newsletter • 0 implied HN points • 11 Feb 24
đź’ľ History US History
  1. Many academic fields are not teaching young people the history of their field, which may be limiting their capacity to offer alternative perspectives.
  2. While the founding fathers were deeply educated about politics and governance, current practices often show a lack of depth and passivity.
  3. Reflecting on the past can offer interesting insights into the present and help avoid undoing the hard work of those who came before us.