The Latest Breaking News from the Civil War

Mary Surratt, the building’s owner, would become the first woman executed by the US federal government

Political violence is hardly new to America. Since the country’s inception, gunmen have shaped its political landscape, from the Civil War to the Ku Klux Klan, to high-profile assassinations and the bombing of federal buildings. Yet the threat of political violence has deepened in recent years and intensified during the…

There’s one question I get every time I give a talk. I’m a curator of political history at the Smithsonian Institution, and when I discuss the deep history of political division in our country, someone in the audience always asserts that we can’t possibly compare past divisions to the present,…

It's the deadliest conflict that Lebanon has experienced since the end of the civil war in 1990. In the space of just a few days, Israeli air strikes have killed more than 1,000 people and left thousands wounded, with civilians making up a large part of the casualties. The violence…

Lebanon's former central bank governor, Riad Salameh, has been arrested in Beirut. Once lauded for reviving the country's economy after the civil war, Salameh's later years in office were marred by allegations of financial crimes including embezzlement and money laundering. Plus, the trial against Martin Winterkorn, the former CEO of…

Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election not only failed, but some of them also rested on a misreading of the U.S. Constitution, as our new analysis argues. The relevant constitutional provision dates back to just after the Civil War, and contemporaries recognized it as…

I first visited Lebanon in 1978, three years into the civil war and six years before Theodore Ell was born. I mention this because, despite the fact our experiences of this fascinating country were at different times, his impressions and judgements in his excellent new book Lebanon Days – which…

Kevin Costner's 'Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1' premieres on HBO Max, offering a fresh perspective on the Civil War era with a star-studded cast.

President Joe Biden is awarding the Medal of Honor for “conspicuous gallantry” to a pair of Union soldiers who stole a locomotive deep in Confederate territory during the Civil War and drove it north for 87 miles as they destroyed railroad tracks and telegraph lines

Arizona's Supreme Court says an abortion ban passed during the Civil War should be the law of the land today. The EPA is putting limits on PFAS in drinking water.

Discovering her family's deep history, actress Danielle Brooks learns that one of her ancestors enlisted in the Union army during the Civil War.