James Monroe

James Monroe’s 1817 goodwill tour kicked off a decade of party-less government – but he couldn’t stop the nation from dividing again.

What role should the federal government play in building our infrastructure?

James Callender spread scurrilous rumors about Alexander Hamilton and John Adams. Then he turned on Thomas Jefferson, too.

What the President’s confrontations with Panama, Greenland, Canada, and Colombia suggest about his expansionist vision.

Trump's foreign policy is not as unprecedented as it seems.

The political upheaval of 1824 changed America. The same could happen in 2024.

The troubled history of the famous poinsettia plant.

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

The Treaty of Ghent ended the War of 1812, an oft overlooked conflict that continues to shape the politics and culture(s) of North America.

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

Dreams of Central America in the era of the Erie Canal.

John C. Calhoun knew what a strong federal government might do.

We say we’re for it. We’ve never truly had it. These next few years will determine its fate.

A review of Robert Elder's new biography of John C. Calhoun.

A cat named Miss Pussy! A racist parrot! Benjamin Harrison’s possums, which he later ate!

The answer can change over time.

We haven’t built many memorials to panics, recessions, or depressions, but maybe we should.

When Washington left the presidency, he didn’t really leave politics at all.

Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence announced a new epoch in world history, transforming a provincial tax revolt into a great struggle to liberate humanity.

The Marquis de Lafayette's name graces more city parks and streets than perhaps any other foreigner