Tagged politics
Let's Talk: Philly D.A.
Philadelphians, we need to talk! Join your neighbors at eight Free Library of Philadelphia libraries between May 23 and June 30th, to watch and discuss individual episodes of the award winning PBS documentary series Philly D.A. . We…
Frenemies: The Strange Friendship of JFK and Richard Nixon
The 1960 presidential campaign was close, hard-fought, and left both sides feeling embittered. Kennedy’s final margin of victory was less than 115,000 votes out of nearly 70 million cast. Nixon was convinced that the Kennedy…
Trust No One: Joe McCarthy and the Politics of Fear
Lies. Alternative facts. Demonize and Destroy Your Opponents. Does this sound familiar? Former Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (R-Wisconsin) has been dead for 63 years, but the political tools and techniques that he pioneered are as fresh as…
Voting by Mail? Avoid "Naked Ballots"!
Updated Tuesday, October 20, 2020 12:15 p.m. Spanish and Chinese translations have been added to this blog post. In the real world, small technical details count for a lot. How many checks were never cashed because the person who wrote…
Making Her Mark: Philadelphia Women Fight for the Vote Exhibition Opens Fall 2020
As we find ourselves weeks away from Election Day, consider this question: Who was the first person in your family to vote? The stories of Philadelphia women who built and sustained movements dedicated to voting rights is…
Defying Putin: The Dangers and Opportunities in Opposing Russia’s President
Bad things happen to people that Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, dislikes. Currently, Aleksi Navalny, the most important leader of Russia’s opposition, lies in a German hospital bed struggling to recover from a cup of…
The Picture of Health: The Strange Case of John F. Kennedy
During the critical first presidential debate in 1960, the difference in the physical appearance of the two candidates could not have been sharper. Vice President Richard Nixon looked like a man who belonged in a hospital. The…
A Dying Man Runs for President
If ever a man simply wore himself out while serving his country, Franklin D. Roosevelt is his name. First elected during the depths of the Great Depression in 1932, he was still on the job twelve years later in the midst of World War…
President Eisenhower, Senator McCarthy, and "The Junketeering Gumshoes"
During the years that Dwight Eisenhower served as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, he had to contend with some of the most demanding and difficult personalities on two continents. The shortlist included Franklin D. Roosevelt ,…
Race in the United States: Social Justice Virtual Workshops for Teens
Updated Friday, July 10, 2020 4:59 p.m. "The Social Justice Symposium Teen Planning Committee supports the Concerned Black Workers of the Free Library of Philadelphia ! CBWFLP Response to DEI/Board of Trustees' letter We are…
"I Voted" Stickers from Our Special Collections
It's Primary Election Day in Philadelphia! If you've signed up in Pennsylvania to vote by mail , you should have already received your ballot with its easy-to-follow instructions, enclosure envelope, and mailing envelope. The…
Women of the World, Unite!
"Women of the world, unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains!" You’ve probably heard a slightly different version of this quote (or, to be fair, misquote ) from Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto , the…
Get Your Trusted 2020 Presidential Election News from the Free Library
Super Tuesday is now behind us. The 11th debate of the Democratic presidential primary is on the horizon. Candidates are dropping out of the race left and right, but it’s still anybody’s game. As the field narrows, how can…
Women's History Month 2020: Stories We Know, Stories We'll Discover
"Even if I believed that women should be denied the right of suffrage, wild horses could not drag such an admission from my pen or my lips, for this reason: precisely the same arguments used to prove that the ballot be withheld…
MLK Day of Service | When the Youth Lead
Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a strongly celebrated day in Philadelphia. People of all ages come together to support their communities and uplift the values of MLK’s civil rights leadership during this nationally recognized Day of…
Election Day is Tuesday, November 5
Election Day is Tuesday, November 5 throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. During this general election, Philadelphians will elect a Mayor, 10 District Council and Seven Council at-Large members, as well as Judges, City…
New Voting Machine Demonstrations at a Neighborhood Library Near You!
Whether you've voted or not in the past few years for national or local elections, you may or may not know that voting security has become an ever-increasing concern. A bipartisan report by the Senate Intelligence Committee released…
How to Vote in the Primary Election on Tuesday, May 21
Philadelphians: it’s time to make your voting plans for the 2019 Pennsylvania primary election, which will be held this coming Tuesday, May 21! The Free Library is here to help you vote, in more ways than one. Here’s an…
First Ladies, In Their Own Words
The position of First Lady is a unique one in American government. It’s not a democratically elected position, but the office holds a great deal of cultural clout, and the women who occupied it have been deemed significant enough…
Plan for the Polls: No Excuses!
With the launch of our Division of Cultural and Civic Engagement (DCCE), the Free Library is committed, more than ever, to getting Philadelphians involved in what’s happening in their neighborhoods and communities, as well as the…
Angela Saini | The Patriarchs: The Origins of Inequality
REGISTER Angela Saini is the author of Superior , an “easy-to-read blend of science reporting, cultural criticism, and personal reflection” ( Slate ) that explores the resurgence of the harmful and faulty study of race…
Heather McGhee | The Sum of Us (Adapted for Young Readers): How Racism Hurts Everyone
REGISTER Sandra Shaber Memorial Lecture The Sum of Us , Heather McGhee’s 2021 odyssey across the American landscape of inequality, won wide acclaim for its empathetic and incisive imagining of a future that could offer more than…
Reginald Dwayne Betts | Redaction
REGISTER A “powerful work of lyric art” and “tour de force indictment of the carceral industrial state” ( The New York Times Book Review ), Reginald Dwayne Betts’ poetry collection Felon won the…
Democracy, Democratic Values, and the Recent US Experience
From the works of Plato to those of the Founding Fathers, certain traits of a political system are critical to sustaining democracy. By examining instances where democracies have succumbed to authoritarian government, the course…
American Presidency
The 2016 American Presidency Series will blend education and entertainment for the whole family, offering lectures and analysis about the presidency and leadership along with enriching programs for children in our neighborhood libraries.…
Presidents of the United States
Under the United States Constitution, the President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States. As chief of the executive branch and face of the federal government as a whole, the presidency is…
U.S. Elections and Politics
The United States midterm general election will be held on Tuesday, November 6, 2018. In Pennsylvania, the ballot includes candidates for Governor, Lt. Governor, U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, the Pennsylvania State Senate,…
NewsBank Hot Topics
Trending news and hot topics for your next assignment! Hot topics covers Current Events, Business & Economics, Civics, Government, & Politics, Social Issues, Science, Technology & Health, Sports, Arts & Literature, and People in the News.
Gale OneFile | High School Edition (formerly InfoTrac Student Edition) *
High school students will have access to age-appropriate content from magazines, journals, newspapers, reference books, and engaging multi-media covering a wide range of subjects, from science, history, and literature to political…
Neal Gabler | Against The Wind: Edward Kennedy and the Rise of Conservatism, 1976-2009 with Patrick Kennedy
In conversation with former congressman Patrick Kennedy Neal Gabler is the author of Catching the Wind: Edward Kennedy and the Liberal Hour , a “rich and insightful” ( The New York Times ) account of the figure known as the most complex…
Kerri K. Greenidge | The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family
In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition Historian Kerri K. Greenidge is the author of Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter , a portrait of the post-Reconstruction civil…
George Lakey | Dancing With History: A Life for Peace and Justice
In conversation with Varshini Prakash Active in grassroot campaigns for social change for more than seven decades, sociologist and Quaker organizer George Lakey was first arrested at a civil rights demonstration in 1963 and most…
Andrew K. Diemer | Vigilance: The Life of William Still, Father of the Underground Railroad
Andrew K. Diemer is the author of The Politics of Black Citizenship: Free African Americans in the Mid-Atlantic Borderland, 1817–1863 , an examination of the ways in which free Black Philadelphians and Baltimoreans fought to defend…
Anand Giridharadas | The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy
Ellis Wachs Endowed Lecture In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition A former longtime columnist and foreign correspondent for The New York Times , Anand Giridharadas is the bestselling author of …
Stacy Schiff | The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams
In conversation with award-winning journalist and broadcaster Tracey Matisak Acclaimed for her “balanced, perceptive, thoroughly researched and exceptionally well written” ( The New Yorker ) nonfiction portraits of historical figures,…
Maggie Haberman | Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America
In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition Maggie Haberman was part of a team that won a 2018 Pulitzer Prize for its reportage of the investigations into then-President Donald Trump’s, and his…
Charlayne Hunter-Gault | My People: Five Decades of Writing about Black Lives
In conversation with Dorothy Roberts Referred to by Jelani Cobb as “a Dean of American journalism,” Charlayne Hunter-Gault has chronicled some of the past half-century’s most important moments in Black life, culture, and politics. Often…
Anna Badkhen | Bright Unbearable Reality: Essays
In conversation with Airea D. Matthews, Philadelphia Poet Laureate and Co-Director of the Creative Writing Program at Bryn Mawr With an artist’s perspective and a ground-level view of people in extremis across the world, writer Anna…
Reza Aslan | An American Martyr in Persia: The Epic Life and Tragic Death of Howard Baskerville
Religion scholar Reza Aslan is the author of the No. 1 New York Times bestseller Zealot , “a lucid, intelligent page-turner” ( Los Angeles Times ) that sifts through centuries of mythmaking to present a clear account of the life and…
Saidiya Hartman and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor| Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America
One of academia’s leading authorities on African American literature, enslavement, gender studies, and the ways in which marginalized people are excluded in historical narratives, Saidiya Hartman is a University Professor at Columbia…
Margaret A. Burnham | By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners
In conversation with Tracey Matisak Margaret A. Burnham is the founding director of the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, an initiative to document every racially motivated killing in the South between 1930 and 1970. Also a…
Ben Macintyre | Prisoners of the Castle: An Epic Story of Survival and Escape from Colditz, the Nazis' Fortress Prison
Meelya Gordon Memorial Lecture “John le Carré’s nonfiction counterpart” ( The New York Times ), Ben Macintyre is the bestselling author of A Spy Among Friends, Agent Zigzag, Operation Mincemeat, and The Spy and the Traitor , among…
Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes, Dawud Anyabwile | Victory. Stand! Raising My Fist for Justice
In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award winning broadcaster and journalist Tommie Smith and John Carlos made history at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics when they stood at the winners’ podium and raised their black-gloved fists to…
Ruth Wilson Gilmore | Abolition Geography: Essays Towards Liberation
In conversation with Chenjerai Kumanyika Ruth Wilson Gilmore is largely credited with creating carceral geography, the study of how the interplay between space, institutions, and political economies shape modern incarceration. The…
Adam Schiff | Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could
In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award winning journalist and broadcaster The United States Representative for California’s 28th Congressional District and the Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Adam…
W. Kamau Bell with Kate Schatz | Do the Work!: An Antiracist Activity Book
In conversation with Marc Lamont Hill W. Kamau Bell is the host and executive producer of the Emmy Award–winning CNN docuseries United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell , and also directed and executive produced the recent four-part…
Mark Leibovich | Thank You for Your Servitude: Donald Trump's Washington and the Price of Submission
In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award winning broadcaster and journalist Mark Leibovich’s books include the No. 1 bestseller This Town , a “vastly entertaining and deeply troubling” ( The New York Times Book Review ) exploration…
Michael Pollan | This is Your Mind on Plants
In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition One of the world’s foremost chroniclers of the intersection of the human and natural worlds, Michael Pollan is a No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of…
Malcolm Nance | They Want to Kill Americans: The Militias, Terrorists, and Deranged Ideology of the Trump Insurgency
In conversation with Marc Lamont Hill A world-renowned counterterrorism expert and former career intelligence officer who has deployed in the Balkans, the Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa, Malcolm Nance is a longtime consultant for…
Votes PA
The Pennsylvania Department of State’s online guide to voter registration has everything you need to know about voting in the 2008 Presidential Election.
Votes PA
Portal from the Pennsylvania Department of State has information on registering to vote, locating your polling place, applying for alternative ballots, and the new voter ID law.
Vote: the Machinery of Democracy
The Smithsonian Institution has put together this website on the history of the technical and mechanical aspects of voting in the US.
U.S. Election Assistance Commission
One of the Election Assistance Commission’s primary mandates under the Help America Vote Act is to serve as a central resource for information about elections. This site includes information about registering to vote and serving as a…
The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials from 1952 - 2012
Fascinating look at the presidential campaign commercials of yesteryear.
The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials from 1952 - 2008
Fascinating look at the presidential campaign commercials of yesteryear.
The History of Televised Presidential Debates
Essays, interviews, and guides to the role of debates in presidential races, including video of debates since 1960.
The Electoral College
The Electoral College was established by the founding fathers as a compromise between election of the president by Congress and election by popular vote. The people of the United States vote for the electors who then vote for the President.
The American Presidency Project
A very complete electronic source of everything you ever wanted to know about the Presidency from the University of California at Santa Barbara. Includes audio and video clips back to the Hoover Administration, Executive Orders and…
Surviving Thanksgiving
Dreading the post-election Thanksgiving dinner table conversation this year? Here are some survival tips. Good Luck!
Project Vote Smart
Project Vote Smart allows voters to scrutinize candidates voting records, issue positions, interest group ratings, public statements, campaign finances and biographical information.
Pennsylvania Voter Registration Resource Center
The Pennsylvania Department of State’s Online Guide to voter registration has everything you need to know about voting in the 2018 midterm election.
League of Women Voters of Philadelphia
The League of Women Voters of Philadelphia provides a one-stop portal for non-partisan information on voting, election information, civic education, and civic participation.
Federal Election Commission
In 1975, Congress created the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to administer and enforce the Federal Election Campaign Act. This site includes data on campaign contributions to all candidates, along with maps that show where…
Fact Check: Annenberg Political Fact Checker
Based at the University of Pennsylvania, this is a "nonpartisan, nonprofit, 'consumer advocate' for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. [They] monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by…
Commission on Presidential Debates
"The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) was established in 1987 to ensure that debates, as a permanent part of every general election, provide the best possible information to viewers and listeners." Look for a link to Debate…
Ben's Guide to Government for Kids
A simple guide for children on how our government works, divided by age range.
Ballotpedia
Ballotpedia is an online encyclopedia of American politics and elections. It contains neutral, accurate, and verifiable information on government officials and the offices they hold, political issues and public policy, elections,…
Additional Information about Voter Registration in Pennsylvania
The Committee of Seventy also provides information about Pennsylvania voter registration and absentee ballots.
American Presidency Series
Join the Free Library for a series of compelling provocative programs that examine the untold stories of, unconventional approaches to, and contemporary concerns about the world's most difficult job. The 2016 American Presidency Series…