John Quincy Adams

As convenient as it might be to blame the filibuster on the famous defender of slavery, the historical record is much messier.

Elkison v. Deliesseline presented a federal court with the question of whether a state could incarcerate and enslave a free subject of a foreign government.

Joe Biden has met with scholars to discuss his presidency and likely legacy—but what are we to make of his special relationship with historian Jon Meacham?

Family blessings are a curse, or they can be. The life of Henry Adams explained in his book Education.

In becoming the party of Trump, the G.O.P. confronts the kind of existential crisis that has destroyed American parties in the past.

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!

David O. Stewart discusses the relationship between William Costin and the Washington bloodline.

James Shapiro’s recent book looks at why Shakespeare has been a mainstay of the cultural and political conflicts of the country since its founding.

He devoted a lifetime to studying America’s foundation, witnessed its near-dissolution, and uncannily anticipated its evolution.

History is asking only one question right now as Trump refuses to concede. Will the Republicans decide they are no longer an American political party?

Democrats and Republicans are increasingly united in an anti-China front. But their approaches to U.S. foreign policy diverge.

Since its emergence in the middle of the twentieth century, the American Empire has been fueled by the search for an enemy.

Descendants of the Pilgrims have highlighted their ancestors’ role in the country’s founding. But their sanitized version of events is only now starting to be told in full.

The movement for racial equality echoes the vision of the “August First Day” holiday.

Places of memory up and down the East Coast also witnessed acts of resistance and oppression.

In the antebellum South, the slave trader’s office was a site of desire.

Conspiracy theories have been a central feature in American politics since before the Revolution.

It’s doubtful even Alexander Hamilton believed what he was selling in “Federalist No. 68.”

As part of its “1619” inquiry into slavery's legacy, The New York Times revives 19th century revisionist history on the founding.