Vincent Cannato is a historian and author known for his work on American political and urban history. He contributed essays and book reviews to The Weekly Standard from 1998 to 2017, covering topics in American history and political culture, from Andrew Jackson to Ronald Reagan. He is an associate professor of history at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Over the last quarter-century, America has witnessed a remarkable decline in urban crime—most notably in New York City, where murders dropped from a record high 2,245 in 1990 to 335 in 2016. This drop coincided with a change in police practices, with the NYPD leading the way in more active…
The modern Democratic party has a bit of a history problem. The oldest political party in the world regularly celebrates Jefferson-Jackson Day dinners, yet both men are hardly taken as role models by today’s left-leaning Democratic party. Both were slaveholders, with Thomas Jefferson possibly…
After the 2012 election, Mitt Romney’s loss prompted questions about the future of conservatism. A year later, the ongoing drama of Obamacare’s failures has seen similar concerns voiced regarding the future of liberalism. So what, exactly, do we mean when we talk about “liberalism”? Conservatives…
The Age of Reagan
Dry Manhattan
Sprawl
The Prince of the City
A New Deal for New York by Mike Wallace Bell & Weiland, 128 pp., $18.95 In 1918, the philosopher John Dewey wrote about the "social possibilities of war." World War I presented Progressives like Dewey the opportunity to voice support for their vision of government's role over the economy. Higher…
Fighting the Good Fight A History of the New York Conservative Party 1962-2002 by George J. Marlin St. Augustine's, 434 pp., $28 THE BATTLEFIELD of American politics is littered with the corpses of defeated third parties. Occasionally, such parties might sway the outcome of a presidential race, but…
In 1968, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, headed by Illinois governor Otto Kerner, released its report on the race riots plaguing American cities during the 1960s. The Kerner Report's introduction, written by aides to the commission's vice chairman, New York mayor John Lindsay,…