Reality in the United States has become surreal. Politics, with its influx of reality stars TV show hosts, musicians, maybe even professional wrestlers, has become harder to understand. To help in that problem, we asked five distinguished historians, among them Democracy board member Sean Wilentz, what to make of this current moment, and what past moment (if any) it compares to. The results were interesting, surprising—and, inasmuch as no one said the late 1850s, reassuring.