George Washington

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

1796, the first contested presidential election.

In the 1960s, Annette Gordon-Reed was the first Black child to enroll in a white school in her hometown. Now she reflects on having a new school there named for her.

Conservatives have long refused to accept that America’s past is complicated.

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

Discovery of Phillis Wheatley's earliest known elegy in a commonplace book gives us important insights into her early life and how her work circulated.

Christopher Rufo's polemical attacks against Critical Race Theory are not a new phenomenon. Public schools have long been a battlefield for ideological warfare.

The march toward revolution in America coincided with a smallpox epidemic. True freedom now meant freedom from disease as well.

Governors Ron DeSantis and Gretchen Whitmer took opposite approaches to covid in swing states — but each sailed to reelection.

This delicious sticky treat has quite the American origin story.

The death of Elma Sands and the Manhattan Company.

Like so many other reluctant revolutionaries in New York, he seemed the antithesis of the rabble in arms that the British identified with the mobocracy.

Theodore Roosevelt said his made him look like “a mewing cat.” Lyndon Johnson called his “the ugliest thing I ever saw.” Ronald Reagan ordered a do-over.

Ken Burns’ account of prohibition tells a popular story of booze in America. The historical record is far more sobering.

Examining the ingredients—time, grain, government regulations—that have made bourbon an enduring national favorite.

An interview with Woody Holton on his new book, "Liberty is Sweet."

Philadelphia gave America its flag, along with other enduring icons of nationhood. But for many, the red, white and blue banner embodies a legacy of injustice.

Woody Holton’s "Liberty is Sweet" charts not only the contest with Great Britain over “home rule” but also the internal struggle over who should rule at home. 

For nearly all of its modern existence, the Great Dismal Swamp has been excluded from U.S. history. Now there’s a push to bring its significance to light.

Understanding the meaning of the word "slut" in the Founders' vocabulary.