Drawing Insight From Past Eras of Hyper-Partisanship

U.S. Almost Split Apart in 1780s, 1790s, 1830s-1870s

I learned from These Truths, Jill Lepore’s fascinating one-volume history of America, that most of us got a far too sanitized view of our country’s past than existed in reality. For nearly 20 percent of America’s almost 250-year history, certain factions have been at each other’s throats, making the hyper-partisanship of the 2010s and early 2020s seem t…