James Fallows

2 weeks ago | fallows.substack.com | James Fallows

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2 weeks ago | fallows.substack.com | James Fallows

Throngs in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, as part of nationwide protests against Trump/ Musk policies. In more than 1,000 communities through all 50 states plus DC, several million people showed up. The world looks different from just one week ago. (Photo by Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images)This post has two purposes. -One is to note this moment in history: What we know, what we can guess, what we can’t even imagine. And how rapidly everything is changing.

3 weeks ago | fallows.substack.com | James Fallows

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3 weeks ago | fallows.substack.com | James Fallows

During George Washington’s first term, US tariffs were just a gleam in Alexander Hamilton’s eye. This illustration recreates Hamilton, as Treasury Secretary, presenting Washington with the ‘Report on Manufactures,’ which recommended tariffs as part of a strategy for economic development in the nascent republic. (Ed Vebell/Getty Images.)This post is about tariffs, the latest bit of chaos through which Donald Trump is satisfying his major need, which is to dominate minute-by-minute news coverage.

4 weeks ago | fallows.substack.com | James Fallows

An engraving from the Battle of Antietam, in September, 1862. Just before this bloodiest battle of the Civil War, Union infantrymen found a copy of Robert E. Lee’s secret orders on where to station Confederate troops. Someone had left them at a campsite wrapped around a pack of cigars. That copy of Lee’s “Special Orders 191” quickly made its way to the Union commander, George B. McClellan.