Once you put people into categorical boxes, you are inviting them to see history as a zero-sum conflict between this group and that one.

The evil of human bondage was more complex than many historians care to reckon with.

Readers discuss Zohran Mamdani’s election as mayor of New York, and have plenty of advice for him. Also: Thoughts about exercise.

Trump has a favorite power.

Forget MAGA. Forget MAHA. Let’s make America sane again.

What James and Maurene Comey’s cases tell us about President Trump.

Though G.O.P. members are more likely to be viewed as “extreme,” they trounce their opponents on who is more effective.

Despair about dimming economic and personal prospects has created an outwardly strong, inwardly brittle nation.

Only stardom can save Hollywood.

The central dynamic of American politics, underground for a decade, is back.

Readers respond to news analysis articles about health care and the shutdown. Also: Art in new spaces; what A.I. isn’t.

Extending the government shutdown would not have worked.

Young people want a positive, urban vision of family.

It’s one he is unlikely to forget.

The threat from Washington is going to require teamwork.

Lydia Polgreen speaks to the former New York Times bureau chief Howard W. French about the cost of not engaging with Africa.

We taught a generation how to write code. Now we need to teach future generations how to edit code.

The revolutionaries in Silicon Valley are no longer storming the gates. They’re inside the castle, polishing the silverware.

American women need the freedom to determine the course of their own lives.

A bigotry for morons will always be political gold in a world of morons.

Readers respond to an article about how the teaching of U.S. history is changing. Also: Democratic pragmatism; emergency care at risk.

“I don’t know how to explain the war to myself,” says a veteran of the Iraq war. In 2003, they were sent to Iraq. Two decades later, veterans from the same unit grapple with their younger selves and try to make sense of the war. Watch the full Op-Docs film, “The Army We Had,” at nytimes.com/column/op-docs.

The shutdown still may be a net gain for Democrats.

Key elements of the mayor-elect’s campaign have enormous potential for a party that was badly beaten in 2024.

We’ve lost the capacity to feel the grief technology brings.

Violence in the occupied territories continues even if hostilities in Gaza have cooled.

The Trump administration has undermined the once bipartisan war on cancer and declined to approve a promising melanoma therapy.

Governments shouldn’t hand over decision-making to A.I.

To imagine the cost of an “America First” policy, walk through World War II cemeteries in Europe.