George Washington's second inauguration took place in Philadelphia in March 1793. Six months later, yellow fever had ripped through America's capital city, taking 5,000 lives. How did the Founding ...

Lincoln’s time as a young man on the make had made him think hard about the relationship between Americans and their government. In his era, elite southern enslavers insisted that government had no ...

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will ...

A six-part History Channel documentary offers a clear-eyed view of Jefferson’s flaws, contradictions and triumphs.