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William Franklin

Why Did Benjamin Franklin’s Son Remain Loyal to the British?

One of the most influential and ardent Patriots couldn’t persuade his son to join the Revolution.
by Stacy Schiff via The Atlantic on October 8, 2025
Circles in a Circle, by Wassily Kandinsky, 1923.

The Draft of Time

On Ralph Waldo Emerson, his childhood in Boston, and his thoughts on mortality.
by James Marcus via Lapham’s Quarterly on September 2, 2025
Silhouettes of a family, three wearing shirts showing matching DNA shirts, and one with different DNA.

The Family Fallout of DNA Surprises

Through genetic testing, millions of Americans have discovered family secrets. The news has upended relationships and created a community looking for answers.
by Jennifer Wilson via The New Yorker on August 18, 2025
Illustration of William and Florence Kelley

The Father-Daughter Team Who Reformed America

Meet the duo who helped achieve the most important labor and civil rights victories of their age.
by Jon Grinspan via Smithsonian on November 3, 2022
Robert S. McNamara at a news conference in April 1966

Robert McNamara’s Son Reckons With a Legacy of Destruction

Craig McNamara’s family did not talk about the Vietnam War. He spent his life asking questions about it.
by Noah Kulwin via The New Republic on July 6, 2022
Black and white photo of four children holding hands and dressed up in 18th century outfits

A Surprising Factor Influenced How the Framers Voted

The more sons a Founding Father had, the more supportive he was of a strong centralized government.
by Soren J. Schmidt, Jeremy C. Pope via The Atlantic on July 7, 2021

Death Can’t Take the Stories Our Elders Pass On

The pandemic doesn’t just threaten our loved ones, but knowledge of our past — so Nelson George went and found his.
by Nelson George via Medium on April 21, 2020

Roger Goodell’s Father Had a Political Backbone—Why Doesn’t Roger?

The NFL commissioner is bending to pressure from a reactionary Republican president—something his father refused to do.
by John Nichols via The Nation on May 27, 2018
Billy McComiskey (right) performing Irish music at the Library of Congress with his sons Mikey McComiskey (left) and Patrick McComiskey (center) in 2016. Library of Congress photo by Shawn Miller.

A Few Examples of Dads’ Traditions

Stephanie Hall provides examples of folklore and storytelling within a fathers' relationship to music.
by Stephanie Hall via Library of Congress on June 16, 2017
Portrait of stern looking John Winthrop.

Father’s Property and Child Custody in the Colonial Era

The rights and responsibilities of 17th-century fatherhood in England's North American colonies.
by Mary Ann Mason via Berkeley Law (University Of California) on April 11, 2015
Bruce Springsteen

What Hollywood Gets Wrong About Springsteen

The new Boss biopic robs his music of its mythic American qualities.
by Mark Asch via The Atlantic on October 24, 2025
The author and other children picketing the Board of Education in protest of her father's firing.

A General Air of Anxiety

The Red Scare targeted my father. He taught me the meaning of resistance.
by Joan Wallach Scott via Boston Review on September 10, 2025
John Cheever.

John Cheever’s Secrets

In a new memoir, Susan Cheever searches for the wellspring of her father’s genius.
by Adam Begley via The Atlantic on September 9, 2025
A Farm Security Administration representative visits Seabrook Farms in New Jersey in May 1938.

Destiny of the Dispossessed Spinach Prince

John Seabrook’s history of Seabrook Farms, where many incarcerated Japanese Americans worked during WWII, is ultimately about fathers and sons.
by Nick Ripatrazone via The Bulwark on July 25, 2025
Brent Bozell and William F. Buckley, reading a book about Joseph McCarthy.

All In the Family

How William F. Buckley Jr. turned his father’s private convictions and prejudices into a major political movement.
by Paul Baumann via Commonweal on June 26, 2025
Advertisement highlighting recipes to make with Seabrook frozen vegetables.

Decline and Fall of the Spinach Kings: On the Wilting of a Family Dynasty

A history of wealth, enterprise, and family dysfunction.
by John Seabrook via Literary Hub on June 11, 2025
Malcolm X holding his daughter Qubilah.

Malcolm X the Girl Dad Was Hidden in Plain Sight

On the other side of the hardened activist was a man who stirred his coffee with his daughter's finger and told her it made it sweet.
by Mark Anthony Neal via Level Magazine on May 19, 2025
Green light in a dark sky.

On My Grandfather’s Novel: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s "The Great Gatsby" at 100

Reflections on the literary legacy of a timeless American novel.
by Eleanor Lanahan via Literary Hub on April 7, 2025
A still from the Apprentice of Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump and Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn inside a car.

The Apprenticeship of Donald Trump

A new film examines Trump's formative years under the tutelage of Roy Cohn.
by David Klion via The Nation on October 21, 2024
The Eagle Hotel in July 1913 decorated for the 50th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg.

Battle Hymns

Charles Ives and the Civil War.
by Allen C. Guelzo via The American Scholar on September 12, 2024
Men stand around as John Quincy Adams dies in bed.

John Quincy Adams's America

Historians may never speak of an “Age of Adams” to rival Andrew Jackson, but Randall Woods’s new biography reveals the sixth president’s greatness.
by Daniel N. Gullotta via Law & Liberty on September 6, 2024
Gratz Cohen and the manuscript of one of his poems.

A Savannah Poet

The Civil War cut short many lives, and a new a book that blends the genres of history and memoir sets out the resurrect the memory of one of those lives.
by Jason K. Friedman via University Of South Carolina Press on July 15, 2024
Spielberg and Henry Thomas in a scene on the set of E.T.

The Auteur of Fatherhood: How Steven Spielberg Recast American Masculinity

Steven Spielberg’s early films conjure all of his moviemaking magic to repair a world of lost dads.
by Phillip Maciak via The Yale Review on March 4, 2024
Margie Burkhart

The Enduring Family Trauma Behind ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’

The murders of her Osage relatives for their oil wealth still reverberate in the life of Margie Burkhart, granddaughter of a central character in the new movie.
by Sydney Trent via Retropolis on October 20, 2023

The Spanish-Speaking William F. Buckley

Buckley’s seldom-acknowledged fluency in Spanish shaped his worldview—including his admiration for dictators from Spain to Chile and beyond.
by Bécquer Seguín via Dissent on September 28, 2023
Vince McMahon

Vince McMahon Controls Wrestling History in Order to Control All of Wrestling

How the WWE chairman warped pro wrestling all the way to WrestleMania 39.
by Abraham Josephine Riesman via Polygon on March 27, 2023
Bobby Seal and Huey Newton standig in front of a Black Panther Party sign

How Huey P. Newton’s Early Intellectual Life Led Him To Activism

The role of family in Huey P. Newton's educational journey.
by Mark Whitaker via Literary Hub on February 13, 2023

A Brief History of One of the Most Powerful Families in New York City: The Morgenthaus

An excerpt from a new book on the so-called "Jewish Kennedys."
by Andrew Meier via Literary Hub on October 17, 2022
A picture of the author as a teenager with his parents, in his bedroom decorated with rock music posters.

My Dad and Kurt Cobain

When my father moved to Taiwan, a fax machine and a shared love of music bridged an ocean.
by Hua Hsu via The New Yorker on August 15, 2022
Black and white photo of Mavis Staples, looking upward, hands raised.

The Gospel According to Mavis Staples

A legendary singer on faith, loss, and a family legacy.
by David Remnick via The New Yorker on June 24, 2022
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