John Quincy Adams

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.

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

He never denounced slavery and was brutal towards American Indians, but remains a popular figure. Why?

Why the statesmen of the Roman Republic had such an influence on the patriots of the Revolutionary era.

Trump and other peddlers of angry rhetoric may reap short-term gains, but history suggests they will provoke a fearsome backlash.

Islam in America dates to the founding fathers, says Smithsonian’s religion curator Peter Manseau.

The resurgence of the debate over the Sage of Monticello's legacy: Is Jefferson the ultimate patriot or ultimate hypocrite?