Benjamin Franklin

From the colonial period to the end of the US Civil War, the rattlesnake sssssssymbolized everything from evil to unity and power.

Which personality of the American Revolution or the founding era is remembered for the wrong reasons, and why?

Revolutionary Americans adopted native snakes as symbols for their cause. Why?

From “The Old Farmer’s Almanac” to “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” what do bestselling guides to self-improvement reveal about the United States?

Why debunking mesmerism only made it stronger.

Erasing the women of the founding era makes it harder to see women as leaders today.

The Founding Fathers relied on deceit in championing American independence—and that has lessons for the present.

Benjamin Franklin, magnetic trees, and erotically-charged séances.

Even in a high-tech era, fears about minority political agency are the most reliable way to destabilize the U.S. political system.

Why French revolutionaries, in need of an image to represent the all important “will of the people”, turned to the thunderbolt.

America's founders have never enjoyed more sex appeal, but the hit Musical cheats audiences by making democracy look easy

On the origins of racial exclusion in the society that would become the United States of America.

French theorists said that American native species were inferior to European ones—the former President went to great lengths to show that they were wrong.

"You're taking over our country" echoes long-held narratives and has renewed prominence in conservative discourse.

The story of America’s most pliable, pernicious, irrepressible myth.

On the introduction of the Franklin stove into the American home and the ensuing stove revolution.

After peaceful attempts at alliance-building stalled, the Continental Army launched an ill-fated invasion of Quebec in June 1775.

The United States fares badly on the World Happiness Report. Who cares?

The United States Postal Service is under federal scrutiny. It’s not the first time.

On the first Monday in March, Pulaski Day festivities at Chicago’s Polish Museum of America honored the “Father of American Cavalry,” 280 years after his birth.