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Painting of George Washington on horseback, leading troops through the countryside to squash the Whiskey Rebellion.

Examining Public Opinion during the Whiskey Rebellion

This armed uprising in 1794, over taxation by the fledgling new government, threatened to destroy the new union within six years of the Constitution’s ratification.
A painting of George Washington during the Whiskey Rebellion.

The Revolutionary Language and Behavior of the Whiskey Rebels

On the continued revolutionary rhetoric and ideology that persisted in America even after the American Revolution.
Portrait of Alexander Hamilton

The Hamilton Cult

Has the celebrated musical eclipsed the man himself?
Alexander Hamilton.

Inventing Alexander Hamilton

The troubling embrace of the founder of American finance.
George Washington

Drink Like a Founding Father

Make one of President George Washington's favorite cocktails.
George Washington

The Moment of Truth

The reelection of Donald Trump would mark the end of George Washington’s vision for the presidency—and the United States.
A handwritten envelope for court documents in "The United States v. Thomas Chittenden."

Guilty as Charged

Convicting Vermont’s first governor.
Two men fighting during Shay's Rebellion.
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Fights Over American Democracy Reach Back to the Founding Era

In early America, the soaring ideals behind establishing a new democracy were marked by cycles of progress and backlash.
Painting depicting the U.S. Army and American Indians signing the Treaty of Greenville, 1785.

How the (First) West Was Won: Federalist Treaties that Reshaped the Frontier

Treaties with Britain, the Confederated tribes, and Spain revealed that America was still dependent on the greater geopolitics of the Atlantic World.
Black and white photo of workers opening bourbon barrels.
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Bourbon Country

Examining the ingredients—time, grain, government regulations—that have made bourbon an enduring national favorite.
Picture of the "Words That Made Us."

Context and Consequences

On Akhil Reed Amar’s “The Words That Made Us,” a new history of America’s constitutional conversation.

The President's Cabinet Was an Invention of America's First President

A new book explores how George Washington shaped the group of advisors as an institution to meet his own needs.

Not Our Independence Day

The Founding Fathers were more interested in limiting democracy than securing and expanding it.
A drawing of protestors wrestling a tax collector to the ground.

A Prudent First Amendment

Often, the proper scope of the First Amendment can be determined only by considering both text and context.
National Guard members deploy near the White House as peaceful protests are scheduled against police brutality and the death of George Floyd, on June 6, 2020 in Washington, D.C.

The Most Dangerous Law in America

The Insurrection Act is a nuclear bomb hidden in the United States code, giving presidents unimaginable emergency power. No President has abused it. Yet.

When Constitutional-Law Professors Fight

On the folly of relying on history to settle the debate over whether the Fourteenth Amendment should bar Trump from office.
Robert E. Lee.

Disqualifying Trump via Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment

A bad history.
A political cartoon lampooning the “robber baron” monopolists’ exploitation of laborers, 1883

When Americans Liked Taxes

The idea of liberty has often seemed to mean freedom from government and its spending. But there is an alternate history, one just as foundational and defining.

American Revolutionary Geographies Online

Discover the stories, spaces, and people of the American Revolutionary War era through maps, interpretive essays, and interactives.
Lithograph of Monongahela River bridge
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The Girders of Steel City's History

Pittsburgh as a symbol of America itself.

Our Chief Danger

The story of the democratic movements that the framers of the U.S. Constitution feared and sought to suppress.

Stories in the Shine

"Moonshine" is now a big thing in the liquor biz. But it takes a visit to West Virginia to get a sense of the complex stories in every barrel.
D.C. National Guard members stand on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
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President Trump Can Send the Military to Police Americans, but is Doing so Wise?

The history of using militarized force domestically.

A 'Hamilton'-esque Scandal Helped Give Trump his Cudgel

On the origins of the Insurrection Act, which allows the president to call on federal troops and state militias to put down insurrections.

The Late Murray Rothbard Takes on the Constitution

A lost volume of American history finds the light of day.

States Can't Fight Coronavirus on Their Own—And the Founding Fathers Knew It

It was a lesson they'd learned from experience.
Portrait of George Washington in his military uniform.

The Gun Guy and Illegal Militia Founder Who Became President: George Washington

Our first President understood that armed citizens are essential to American freedom.
Photo of young woman looking at camera in blue-walled room. Above her an image of Jesus Christ is framed. Through the room's window a shirtless man can be seen on a porch, also facing the camera

Left Behind

J.D. Vance's "Hillbilly Elegy" and Steven Stoll's "Ramp Hollow" both remind us that the history of poor and migratory people in Appalachia is a difficult story to tell.
Alexander Hamilton

The Hamilton Hustle

Why liberals have embraced our most dangerously reactionary founder.

John Brown: The First American to Hang for Treason

The militant abolitionist's execution set a precedent for armed resistance against the federal government with implications for those who had condemned him.

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