Field Notes on the Republic

Ida B. Wells and the Discipline of the Record

Ida B. Wells and the Discipline of the Record

Michael Fowler

In 1892 a young Memphis editor lost three friends to a lynch mob, and what Ida B. Wells did next invented much of how investigative journalism is done. Facing a...

Ida B. Wells and the Discipline of the Record

Michael Fowler

In 1892 a young Memphis editor lost three friends to a lynch mob, and what Ida B. Wells did next invented much of how investigative journalism is done. Facing a...

Nine Justices, and the Time Someone Tried to Change It

Nine Justices, and the Time Someone Tried to Ch...

Michael Fowler

There are nine justices on the Supreme Court, and the number appears nowhere in the Constitution. In 1937, a popular president freshly reelected by a landslide came very close to...

Nine Justices, and the Time Someone Tried to Ch...

Michael Fowler

There are nine justices on the Supreme Court, and the number appears nowhere in the Constitution. In 1937, a popular president freshly reelected by a landslide came very close to...

Gerrymander, the 1812 Salamander District

Gerrymander, the 1812 Salamander District

Michael Fowler

Elbridge Gerry signed the Declaration and served as Vice President, and almost none of that is what his name means today. To gerrymander is to rig the map. The story...

Gerrymander, the 1812 Salamander District

Michael Fowler

Elbridge Gerry signed the Declaration and served as Vice President, and almost none of that is what his name means today. To gerrymander is to rig the map. The story...

The Jury, Self-Government's Smallest Room

The Jury, Self-Government's Smallest Room

Michael Fowler

Most self-government happens at a distance, through people we elect. The jury is the exception, the one place the government's power is handed directly to twelve ordinary people in a...

The Jury, Self-Government's Smallest Room

Michael Fowler

Most self-government happens at a distance, through people we elect. The jury is the exception, the one place the government's power is handed directly to twelve ordinary people in a...

The Summer of 1787, Behind Closed Windows

The Summer of 1787, Behind Closed Windows

Michael Fowler

The Constitution was written in a sealed room, through one of the hottest summers anyone could remember, with the windows shut on purpose. Why the Convention's secrecy rule, unsettling as...

The Summer of 1787, Behind Closed Windows

Michael Fowler

The Constitution was written in a sealed room, through one of the hottest summers anyone could remember, with the windows shut on purpose. Why the Convention's secrecy rule, unsettling as...

The Five Freedoms of the First Amendment, Counted

The Five Freedoms of the First Amendment, Counted

Michael Fowler

The First Amendment is the most quoted line in American civic life and one of the least carefully read. It is forty-five words long, and inside them are not one...

The Five Freedoms of the First Amendment, Counted

Michael Fowler

The First Amendment is the most quoted line in American civic life and one of the least carefully read. It is forty-five words long, and inside them are not one...