An attack on the U.S. Capitol, controversy over vaccines and reactions to a pandemic, immigrant parents separated from their children—these are all topics with established battle lines on modern media platforms. But the very same topics were also points of deep polarization in the 19th and early 20th centuries, playing out in American newspapers, often through strongly worded letters to the editor.

An attack on the U.S. Capitol, controversy over vaccines and reactions to a pandemic, immigrant parents separated from their children—these are all topics with established battle lines on modern media platforms. But the very same topics were also points of deep polarization in the 19th and early 20th centuries, playing out in American newspapers, often through strongly worded letters to the editor.

In Still Trending, author Kenneth N. Weiss transports us back to the earliest form of “social media”. Some of the similarities we observe over time are startling, and two realities remain steadfastly true: The country has a rich and often troubled history as a democracy, and time and time again, we manage to work through our differences. Democracy not only survives but emerges stronger than ever before.