3Qs: A political conflict ended, but still reverberating

The sesqui­cen­ten­nial of the Civil War is an oppor­tu­nity to revisit its legacy; the many ways that it con­tinues to affect our society and cul­ture. Here, Pro­fessor Bal­lard Camp­bell, an expert in Amer­ican polit­ical his­tory, dis­cusses how the polit­ical divi­sions of the 1860s con­tinue to res­onate in our pol­i­tics. Camp­bell is a Dis­tin­guished Lec­turer for the Orga­ni­za­tion of Amer­ican Historians.

3Qs: Larger issues in debt-​​limit debate

On Monday, Trea­sury Sec­re­tary Tim­othy Gei­thner told Con­gress the U.S. has reached its debt ceiling — the limit on how much money the gov­ern­ment can borrow. Not only has raising this limit been at times a con­tentious polit­ical issue, it also raises larger issues related to the U.S. economy’s long-​​term health, says Kamran Dad­khah, asso­ciate pro­fessor of eco­nomics at North­eastern University.