fundamental rights

Ed Ayers visits public historians in Boston and Philadelphia and explores what “freedom” meant to those outside the halls of power in the Revolutionary era.

Martin Luther King Jr. recognized that Imperial expansion over stolen Indian land shaped and deepened the American Revolution’s relationship to slavery.

The historical context of the amendments passed in the wake of the Civil War, Eric Foner argues, are widely misunderstood.

What happened to America’s labor movement?

And it’s not simply that he calls himself a socialist.

Power comes before freedom, not the other way around.

The declaration's words and sentiments have inspired nations and movements around the world.

In the wake of devastating floods, one writer reflects on the importance of place to Great Plains Indians.

In 1867, the Fenian Brotherhood was caught running guns to Ireland, precipitating a diplomatic crisis.

From voting rights to the electoral college, a brief explainer on three widespread misconceptions about voting.

How voter suppression became a political weapon in American politics.

The elusive meaning of privacy in America.

Commemoration of the 14th Amendment must not display the abundance of freedom, but the hunger for it on both sides of the border.

The notion that a government’s chief obligation is getting stuff done is a fairly recent arrival on the historical scene.

The spectre of Dred Scott is haunting St. Louis.

The left is turning its back on the Revolution. Here's why that's a mistake.

A new look at the Declaration of Independence from 24 scholars across the country.

When it comes to imperialism, Latin America never forgets, and the United States never remembers.

How should the courts use history?

Many Americans could have gone either way during the Revolution.