Politics

Understand how American politics evolved through real episodes: filibusters, impeachments, redistricting fights, and landmark legislation.

Readers search for: American politics explained · U.S. political history facts.

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• The Greenbrier Bunker: Congress’s Secret Cold War Hideaway Under a Resort

  For decades, a luxury hotel concealed an underground chamber meant for the entire U.S. legislature.

• The Wilmington Coup of 1898: America’s Only Violent Overthrow of a City Government

  White supremacists expelled elected officials, burned a Black newspaper, and killed dozens in North Carolina.

• Bleeding Kansas: When a Senator Was Beaten Nearly to Death on the Senate Floor

  In 1856, a pro-slavery congressman walked onto the Senate floor and beat an abolitionist senator unconscious with a metal-tipped cane. The South sent the attacker hundreds of replacement canes.