Thomas Jefferson

Edward White’s new monthly column, “Off Menu,” serves up lesser-told stories of chefs cooking in interesting times.

Official responses to the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 shows that the refusal to accept responsibility can have catastrophic consequences.

On the occasion of its bicentennial, and in the wake of racist violence in Charlottesville, UVA confronts its history.

Religious bigotry is only less pressing today than racial bigotry because of progress Jefferson helped bring about.

Reflections on the long career of race science at Mr. Jefferson's university.

The Comte de Buffon's thirty-six volume Natural History claimed that America was a land of degeneracy. That enraged Thomas Jefferson.

From religious liberty to religious violence, it helps to get our facts straight.

The University of Virginia was supposed to transform a slave-owning generation, but it failed.

Many people think of the White House as a symbol of democracy, but it also embodies America’s complicated past.

The origins of our efforts to keep foreign countries out of our elections.

"But he'd have to acknowledge that the soul of his country is southern; the soul of his country is black."

Discussions of admissions to élite colleges are built around the idea that somewhere around the next bend is the right way to do it.

The problem with progressive intellectuals looking to the nation's founders for progressive models.

The idea that democracy and billionaires are incompatible might seem radical to conservatives. But to America’s founders, it seemed like common sense.

“John Marshall...exhibited a subservience to the executive branch that continues to haunt us.”

Some historical sites have struggled to reconcile founding-era exceptionalism with the true story of America’s original sin.

In navigating lives of privation and brutality, enslaved people haggled, often daily, for liberties small and large.

Even America's founding document isn't immune to the powers of polarization.

The War of 1812 holds lessons about the costly error of tariffs — not the threat of Canadians.

How solid is the wall between church and state?