Noah Webster

In the 1790s a plague struck the new American nation and killed thousands. Noah Webster told the story of pandemics and invented a field.

What would an American dictionary meen for the men and wimmen of America?

Noah Webster, author of An American Dictionary of the English Language published in 1828, invented the word "immigration."

Since the 1960s, the reference book has cataloged how people actually use language, not how they should. That might be changing.

Signatures are a mark of authenticity.

Today's Christian nationalists and liberal secularists both oversimplify the history of the nation's founding.

American thinkers consider what the already occupied West could fund.

Conservatives’ veneration for the founders opens the door for a secular vision for America’s public schools.

The intertwined history of education, history, and patriotism in the United States.

What began as a protest, rally, and march ended as something altogether different—a day of anarchy that challenges the terminology of history.

In 1790, George Washington fell severely ill, threatening his life and the young nation he led.

How two competing definitions of the idea evolved over 250 years—and why they remain largely irreconcilable.

Fears of great wealth and the need for economic equality go back to the country’s origins.

The fight over free education is much older than you think.

The assumptions of white priority and white domination suffuse every chapter and every theme of the thousands of textbooks that have blanketed the schools of our country.

We need a radical solution to avert the disintegration of our political system.

Rachel Herrmann asks whether there’s such a thing as “American food.”