Martin Van Buren

The eighth president defined the future of politics.

Because Martin Van Buren was an unsuccessful president, his more significant contributions to the nation’s political life have also been obscured.

It's a great story. The only problem is that the whole thing is probably made up.

For American politicians, the obsession with appealing to the everyman dates back to the raucous campaign of 1840.

On factional strife in the Early Republic, and why parties themselves were universally despised.

A political education begins with knockoff opinions amid the 1840 U.S. presidential election.

A spotlight on a primary source.

Andrew Jackson set the standard for the most tumultuous presidential term ever — at least until now.

Grover Cleveland enthusiasts aren’t thrilled that Donald Trump won a nonconsecutive presidential term.

History illustrates that voters become galvanized and change their party allegiance when former US presidents run for a nonconsecutive term.

The removal of Indigenous people was a national priority with broad consensus.

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

In 1840, William Henry Harrison was mocked for his presidential run at age 67 — 15 years younger than President Biden would be at the start of a second term.

And justified the most extreme responses.

The secret, often missing ingredient to building a majoritarian progressive coalition.

James K. Polk is considered one of the most successful presidents, even though he did not seek reelection.

In 'What It Took to Win,' Michael Kazin traces the history over the past two centuries of what he calls ‘the oldest mass party in the world’.

The transcendentalists thought all human inspiration was divine, all nature a miracle.

The story of President Andrew Jackson's 1,400-pound block of cheese.

The proliferation of antebellum print is analogous to our own tectonic shifts in how people communicate and what they communicate about.