Person

Edward J. Larson

Bylines

Give Me Independence: On 1776, the Pivotal Year For What Would Become America

Why 1776 became the year Americans declared themselves an independent nation.

by Edward J. Larson via Literary Hub on December 5, 2025
What Actually Changed in 1776

The most consequential shift that year was not one of battle lines but of ideology.

by Edward J. Larson via The Atlantic on November 10, 2025
Banneker’s Answer to Jefferson: “I Am an American”

The black naturalist, astronomer, surveyor, and almanac-writer Benjamin Banneker took issue with Thomas Jefferson’s attitude toward “those of my complexion.”

by Edward J. Larson via American Heritage on November 21, 2023

American Inheritance: Liberty and Slavery in the Birth of a Nation, 1765-1795

Edward J. Larson

Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters

Edward J. Larson

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An abolitionist lithograph depicting enslaved people celebrating the Fourth of July while a white judge sits on bales of cotton with his feet on the Constitution, 1840

The Contradictory Revolution

Historians have long grappled with “the American Paradox” of Revolutionary leaders who fought for their own liberty while denying it to enslaved Black people.

by David S. Reynolds via New York Review of Books on July 31, 2025

A duel.

Mud-Slinging and Deadly Duels: How Negative Campaigning Evolved

The factionalized press was the site of campaigning in the U.S.'s first contested presidential elections.

via Retro Report on September 6, 2024

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