British Parliament — Bunk History

Painting of the signing of the Constitution.

The American Founders Made Sure the President Could Never Suspend Congress

Boris Johnson is suspending Parliament for five weeks. That couldn't happen in the United States.

by Eliga Gould via The Conversation on September 3, 2019

Collage of the Battles of Lexington and Concord and patriotic imagery.

Revolution and Progress on Lexington Green

The American Revolution’s first battle is a reminder that liberty isn't the result of inevitable progress but a prize won by those willing to fight for it.

by Richard Samuelson via Law & Liberty on April 25, 2025

Donald Trump with a crown on his head.

Donald Trump Is Trying to Take American Law Back to 1641

Understand that if Trump succeeds the result will not be the harmless resurrection of a quaint jurisprudential artifact.

by Frank O. Bowman III via Slate on February 26, 2025

Supreme Court building.

Lifetime Tenure for Supreme Court Justices Has Outlived Its Usefulness

While letting justices serve during “good behavior” was designed to encourage impartiality, it now tends to promote the opposite effect.

by Jack Rakove via Brennan Center For Justice on October 15, 2024

White house with a crown on it, next to Westminster Palace.

America’s King

America long ago rejected the trappings of monarchy in favor of republicanism, but many have wanted to have it both ways.

by Howe Whitman III via Law & Liberty on September 10, 2024

Painting of the Boston Tea Party.

“Boston Harbor a Tea-pot This Night!”

The dumping of tons of tea in protest set the stage for the American Revolution and was a window on the culture and attitudes of the time.

by Benjamin L. Carp via American Heritage on March 19, 2024

Cover of essays by John Dickinson.

Principled Resistance and the Trouble with Tea

For what did these Americans endure such painful hardship and sacrifice? For what were they taking such a significant stand? Surely, it wasn’t just about tea!

by Robert Guy via Journal of the American Revolution on February 27, 2024

Destruction of tea in the harbor and text protesting the Tea Act.

The Many Myths of the Boston Tea Party

Contrary to popular belief, the 1773 protest opposed a tax break, not a tax hike. And it didn't immediately unify the colonies against the British.

by Meilan Solly via Smithsonian on December 15, 2023

Students on a field trip threw boxes of mock tea overboard at the Boston Tea Party Museum in Boston.

The Boston Tea Party Was a Crime

Opposition to British policy was justified. Destroying 342 crates of tea worth nearly $2 million in today’s money wasn’t.

by Jeff Jacoby via Boston Globe Magazine on December 14, 2023

Colonists boarding the ships and dumping the tea chests.

How the Boston Tea Party's 'Destruction of the Tea' Changed American History

Attacks on private property enraged Colonial leaders and the British public, hardening positions and ruling out compromise.

by Eliga Gould via The Conversation on December 13, 2023

An English revolutionary takes the crown off of the head of the dead King Charles I.

What Happens When You Kill Your King

After the English Revolution—and an island’s experiment with republicanism—a genuine restoration was never in the cards.

by Adam Gopnik via The New Yorker on April 17, 2023

A painting of the American Founders at the Constitutional Convention.

Inventing American Constitutionalism

On "Power and Liberty," a condensed version of Gordon Wood's entire sweep of scholarship about constitutionalism.

by Gordon S. Wood, Brian A. Smith via Law & Liberty on March 10, 2023

Title page of a collection of the letters that debated Great Britain, inscribed to President John Adams.

Massachusettensis and Novanglus: The Last Great Debate Prior to the American Revolution

James M. Smith explains the last debates between Loyalists and Patriots prior to the official outbreak of the American Revolution.

by James M. Smith via Journal of the American Revolution on May 25, 2021

Bill Barr.

What Attorney General Barr Gets Wrong About the American Revolution

The revolutionaries were fighting against arbitrary power and for checks and balances.

by Michael D. Hattem via Made By History on November 22, 2019

Andrew Johnson impeachment.

The Common Misconception About ‘High Crimes and Misdemeanors’

The constitutional standard for impeachment is different from what’s at play in a regular criminal trial.

by Frank O. Bowman III via The Atlantic on October 22, 2019

Painting of Troops, an American Flag and Eagle.

Echoes of Lexington and Concord

The 250th anniversary of "the shot heard round the world" is a reminder of the rights the Patriots fought for.

by Richard Alan Ryerson via Law & Liberty on April 1, 2025

People holding antiwar signs at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

A Brief History of the Democratic Party

The Democratic Party, and the US political system as a whole, is a very strange beast.

by Doug Henwood, Adam Hilton via Jacobin on August 6, 2024

Eyes looking through the stripes on an American flag as if they were window blinds.

How Conspiracy Theory Made America

Americans are seized by conspiracy theories, and as a result, democracy is in peril—so conventional wisdom holds.

by Michael Cuenco via Compact on August 2, 2024

Martin Howard, left, and Stephen Hopkins came to opposing conclusions about their colonial British identities.

Two Colonists Had Similar Identities, But Only One Felt Compelled to Remain Loyal

What might appear to be common values about shared identities can serve not as a bridge but a wedge.

by Abby Chandler via The Conversation on January 4, 2024

The Boston Tea Party.

Why Some Founding Fathers Disapproved of the Boston Tea Party

While many Americans gushed about the effectiveness of the ‘Destruction of the Tea,’ others thought it went too far.

by Dave Roos via HISTORY on December 11, 2023

Benjamin Franklin playing chess with Lady Caroline Howe while Admiral Lord Richard Howe looks on, London, December 1774; watercolor circa 1875–1885

Commanders and Courtiers

Lost wars, especially when defeat comes as a rude surprise, inevitably spark painful self-examination.

by T. H. Breen via New York Review of Books on February 2, 2023

Illustration of bishops titled "The Mitred Minuet"

No Bishops, No Kings: Religious Iconography and Popular Memory of the American Revolution

Popular religious iconography and art in the decades preceding the Revolution offer a fuller narrative arc of the development of revolutionary ideas within American society.

by J. L. Tomlin via Age of Revolutions on December 6, 2021

Civil Rights Act Filibuster, Washington, DC, 1964

The Filibuster, Aaron Burr, and Mitch McConnell

Just because the filibuster wasn't created to promote racial slavery doesn't mean there’s no good argument against it.

by William Hogeland via Hogeland's Bad History on March 17, 2021

A cartoon of Boston colonists in a cage.

How Did the Colonies Unite?

The drive for American independence coalesced in only a few years of rapidly accelerating political change.

by T. H. Breen via New York Review of Books on March 1, 2021

A drawing of the Boston Massacre.

Early American Urban Protests

Eric Hinderaker offers a masterclass in how to peel back the layers of data, scholarship, and propaganda to understand what we call the Boston Massacre.

by Bob Carey via The Metropole on January 19, 2021

President Donald Trump speaking at a podium at the National Archives

Revisionist History is an American Political Tradition

The founding generation revised the country’s history to make the new nation work.

by Michael D. Hattem via Made By History on September 23, 2020

Painting of George Washington, altered to show him holding a stack of cash.

The Founding Generation Showed Their Patriotism With Their Money

History suggests the value of a broader understanding of patriotism, one that goes beyond saluting-the-flag loyalty and battlefield bravery.

by Tom Shachtman via The Atlantic on February 7, 2020

Congress in session.

Why Impeachment Was the Answer to 17th-Century Tyranny

Charles I was charged with high treason, waging war against his people and conspiring to deprive them of their rights and liberties.

by Susan Amussen via Made By History on January 24, 2020

The port of Canton

China and the American Revolution

Explaining the global impact of British-Chinese relations during the colonial period.

by Simon Hill via Journal of the American Revolution on December 7, 2017

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