John Quincy Adams

Coalitions can postpone conflict, not prevent it.

Donald Trump didn’t bring back the Monroe Doctrine. That was the work of the 26th president — and many of the presidents who succeeded him.

The hardest work of leadership comes after victory.

The rise of a violent authoritarian state under Trump unveils a deep uncertainty over what America is.

The difficulty of amending the Constitution does not mean that it is a flawed and outdated relic of a distant past.

The 1826 Fourth of July marked America's 50th anniversary with nationwide celebrations, patriotic art, and reflection amid growing national tensions.

The Marquis de Lafayette’s final visit to the United States in 1825 can show us how to commemorate the Revolution.

“How are free people supposed to stay free? One short answer: don’t trust anyone over thirty.”

Early American elites were fascinated with genealogy, despite the ways it attached them to the Old World.

Christy Thornton and Greg Grandin discuss his new book, “America, América,” and the intertwined histories of the U.S. and Latin America.

And what happens when empirical fact is labeled “improper ideology.”

Trump is relying on a 1798 law with a bad history.

In 1841, John Tyler said he was the president. The Constitution said he wasn’t. What happened next?

Trump's foreign policy is not as unprecedented as it seems.

As a congressman, Davy Crockett found ways to navigate populist upheaval and maintain his own independence.

The Founders didn’t believe the Constitution had a fixed meaning. So why do so many of the justices?

On American history and the history of the word “America.”

“Against Constitutional Originalism” by historian Jonathan Gienapp could fundamentally reorient how we understand America’s founding.

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

Panic about Catholics, Freemasons, and, later, Jews, is deeply woven into American history, and forms the basis of our fertile culture of conspiracy theorizing.