George Washington

Greg Grandin’s new book charts the past and present of American expansionism and its high human costs.

A new history of the early republic explores the origins of originalism.

Slavery and the legacy of white supremacy.

Thomas Paine, the most radical of American revolutionaries, perhaps most fully understood the millennial potential of the new Republic.

“John Marshall...exhibited a subservience to the executive branch that continues to haunt us.”

I was raised to venerate Lee the principled patriot—but I want no association with Lee the defender of slavery.

Why is there still no memorial to Paine, the immigrant whose writing galvanized the American Revolution?

A review of Jill Lepore's new book, which she has called the most ambitious single-volume American history written in generations.

Though Donald Trump has made it into a catchphrase, he didn’t come up with the metaphor “drain the swamp.”

Some historical sites have struggled to reconcile founding-era exceptionalism with the true story of America’s original sin.

Just-discovered letters herald the significance of an unsung Revolutionary woman, Julia Rush.

Might a new approach to war memorials keep us out of future unnecessary wars?

Although its owner died in 1865, many visitors to the Morris-Jumel Mansion still come just to see her.

July 4th celebrates the signing of the Declaration of Independence, but we don’t even have the original!

“Baron Von Steuben” was responsible for whipping the U.S. military into shape when things were looking bleakest.

When a college is named for two slave owners, one of whom was a Confederate hero, history is complicated.

A review of "American Honor: The Creation of the Nation’s Ideals during the Revolutionary Era."

A review of a "The Low Road," a “mordantly anti-Hamiltonian” play that made its debut at New York's Public Theater this spring.

History is coming to life, and scholars are debating the merits of this wave of re-creation and manipulation.

The problems of presidential gigantism can’t be solved by finding the right giant—the office is dying from its own growth.