John Adams

Plus: How George Washington almost ruined his own exit from the national stage.

The Founders knew that executive power was vital but dangerous in any republic.

James M. Smith explains the last debates between Loyalists and Patriots prior to the official outbreak of the American Revolution.

John Adams’s famous defense of the British may not be, as we’ve understood it, an expression of principle and the rule of law.

A madman versus a crook? Unexpected twists? Fake news? Welcome to the election of 1800.

In public schools around the country, conservatives are succeeding in their long effort to replace the word “democracy” with “constitutional republic.”

A brief history of the Alien and Sedition Acts.

What the Constitution asks of us.

The American Revolution’s first battle is a reminder that liberty isn't the result of inevitable progress but a prize won by those willing to fight for it.

America’s early leaders were worried not only about demagogues like Donald Trump, but about the rise of an antidemocratic, wealthy elite that goads such men on.

While it is rare for foreign policy differences between the political parties to affect electoral outcomes, it has happened before.

The signs that precede the crumbling of American political parties and the creation of new ones.

A new book explores the history of presidents who abused their constitutional power and the citizen movements that stopped them.

Over the course of U.S. history, presidential rematches have signaled momentous political upheavals.

At the prodding of John and Abigail Adams, Mercy Otis Warren took on a massive project: writing a comprehensive history of the Revolutionary War.

When drafting the Constitution, our founders had no need of prayer.

1796, the first contested presidential election.

Conservative “populism” has never been about egalitarianism, but about mobilizing support for traditional hierarchies.

Jefferson and his connection to partisanship in early America.

Early Americans conscripted the universe into their nation-building project.