From the gold rush to civil rights, the moon landing to 9/11, the US has always understood, mythologised and sold itself through the power of the still image

Harper Lee’s writing career was brief, but her single novel became one of the most famous in American history. To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) won the Pulitzer Prize, sold tens of millions of copies and remains a fixture of classrooms and popular memory. She published almost nothing else until Go Set a Watchman – an

A century after it was published, F Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece is more relevant than ever. Sarah Churchwell on the trouble with ‘careless people’

Great Gatsby 100th anniversary: The details that make F Scott Fitzgerald’s novel great are often missed – buried beneath a century of accumulated cliché.

Kamala Harris’s bid for power is part of a long struggle against the politics of racism.

American elections had become deadening in their predictability — not anymore The stories that matter on money and politics in the race for the White House The writer is Chair of Public Humanities at the University of London and the author of ‘The…

The indictments against King George in the Declaration of Independence could just as easily be applied to Trump The stories that matter on money and politics in the race for the White House The writer is chair of public humanities at the University…

The fear that overtook us that day in 1988 was unfamiliar to most Americans. Now all too many know how it feels. Thirty-five years ago this week, I was working at a local bookstore in Winnetka, Illinois, the quiet suburb of Chicago where I grew up.…

An examination of Gone With the Wind, the myth of the Lost Cause and what they can tell us about American history and culture today.

Criminal charges in Manhattan galvanise conservatives but the case may prove damaging in the longer term We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Donald Trump news every morning. In downtown Elkhorn, Wisconsin, a city of 10,000…

Former US president faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in hush-money case Joe Miller in New York and James Politi in Washington We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Donald Trump news every morning. Donald…

The list of American politicians charged with or convicted of criminal wrongdoing is long and lurid Receive free US politics & policy updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest US politics & policy news every morning. The…

Newspaper reports across the country proclaimed it “shocking wholesale slaughter”, a “most astonishing, cold-blooded killing” that left a “pile of bodies” “stretched like rag dolls” after a mass shooting. Even in a city known for its violence, such…

Let’s be clear: She was not Norma Jeane. She chose to be Marilyn. Most films that are widely reviled upon release simply evaporate into their own disfavor. Yet Andrew Dominik’s recent Netflix film, Blonde, has lingered in the public consciousness…

A durable code in the nation’s politics emphasizes the limits of unity and inclusion. Sarah Churchwell is the author of "Behold America: The Entangled History of 'America First' and 'the American Dream.'" She is a professor of American literature and…

The overturning of Roe v Wade is part of a wider movement entangled with nativism and white supremacy When the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade on 24 June, permitting the state criminalisation of abortion in America, the only thing everyone…

‘I’m from a part of the country where people justify the actions of slavery, Ku Klux Klan, and lynching. I’m reminded of that dark history as I hear voices today try and justify the actions of the insurrectionists of 6 January 2021,” declared…

The 1939 film of Margaret Mitchell’s novel has helped to keep America delusional and divided, argues Sarah Churchwell In the aftermath of the US Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021, as a stunned world tried to make sense of the violent implosion…