The Alien and Sedition Acts consisted of four laws enacted by the United States government in 1798. The United States passed these laws during a time of great uncertainty, a time when many Americans feared for the very survival for their nation. But...
Mercy Otis Warren wasn’t your typical early American woman. She was a woman with strong political viewpoints, which she wrote about and published for the world to see and consider. Did anyone in society take her views seriously? Did her writings...
How do you get people living in thirteen different colonies to come together and fight for independence? What ideas and experiences would even unite them behind the fight? Patriot leaders asked themselves these very questions, especially as the...
The Declaration of Independence stands first in a series of documents that founded the United States. It also stands as an early step in the long process of establishing a free, independent, and self-governing nation. Since 1776, more than 100...
What did the American Revolution mean and achieve? What sort of liberty and freedom did independence grant Americans and which Americans should receive them? Americans grappled with these questions soon after the American Revolution. They debated...
In December 1773, the Cape Cod Tea Crisis revealed that the people of “radical” Massachusetts were far from united in their support for the American Revolution. An observation that leads us to wonder: How many Americans supported the Patriot cause...
The American Revolution inspired revolutions in France, the Caribbean, and Latin and South America between the late 18th and mid-19th centuries. Naturally, Spanish and Portuguese American revolutionaries turned to the United States for assistance...
Today we address the President of the United States as “Mr. President.” But did you know that the proper title for the office was almost “His Highness the President?” In this episode, Kathleen Bartoloni-Tuazon, author of For Fear of an Elective...
The American Revolution was a revolution against Parliament not a king. This is the idea offered by Eric Nelson in his new book The Royalist Revolution: Monarchy and the American Founding. Today, we explore the Royalist Revolution and how it...
Do you know who authored the Declaration of Independence? If you answered “Thomas Jefferson,” you would be wrong. Jefferson merely composed the first draft of a document others created. In this episode, Danielle Allen, Foundation Professor at the...