Identity is at the heart of much of today’s political conflicts. In his latest book, Fukuyama traces a brief history of how identity came to occupy such a center.

Running for president in 1928, Al Smith argued it was possible to be both a good Catholic and a faithful servant of the American people, writes Terry Golway. Even in losing, he changed U.S. history.

The U.S. Catholic Church still has work to do toward racial reconciliation, writes America associate editor Olga Segura, and this summer’s 1619 Project in The New York Times provides a template worth considering.

In the July 27, 1974 issue of America, the editors laid out the ground rules and implications of the impeachment of President Richard M. Nixon.

The Life of Saint Teresa of Ávila is termed an “autohagiography,” a self-justification of saintliness, by Carlos Eire, a professor of history and religious studies at Yale University.

Despite the long and illustrious history of the Catholic Church in Germany, in the late 19th century Catholics became the great Other to modernizing, secularizing forces.