Joan DeJean is Trustee Professor of Romance Languages at the University of Pennsylvania. This interview is based on her new book, Mutinous Women: How French Convicts Became Founding Mothers of the Gulf Coast (Basic Books, 2022). JF: What led you...
American founding
The Author’s Corner with Jonathan Singerton
Jonathan Singerton is Lecturer of Global and Comparative Histories of Central Europe at the University of Innsbruck. This interview is based on his new book, The American Revolution and the Habsburg Monarchy (University of Virginia Press, 2022). JF: What led...
Episode 97: “In Search of George Washington’s Hair”
Using America’s obsession with Washington’s hair as his window, historian Keith Beutler examines how “physicality,” or the use of the material objects, was the most important way early Americans (1790-1840)–museum founders, African Americans, evangelicals, and school teachers– remembered the nation’s...
Is there just one American origin story?
Emily Sclafani teaches history at Riverdale Country School in the Bronx. Here is a taste of her piece at the American Historical Association’s Perspectives on History titled “The Danger of a Single Origin Story.” I write this as a secondary...
The Author’s Corner with Hannah Farber
Hannah Farber is Assistant Professor of History at Columbia University. This interview is based on her new book, Underwriters of the United States: How Insurance Shaped the American Founding (Omohundro Institute and University of North Carolina Press, 2021). JF: What...
Abigail, an enslaved woman owned by John Jay, died in Paris trying to win her freedom
Historian Martha Jones tells the story at The New York Times: Despite its many markers of memory there are some stories about the past that Paris does not tell. I am an African American historian who spends each summer in...
The Author’s Corner with Brian Ogren
Brian Ogren is Associate Professor of Judaic Studies at Rice University. This interview is based on his new book, Kabbalah and the Founding of America: The Early Influence of Jewish Thought in the New World (New York University Press, 2021)....
Josh Hawley’s “Love America Act.” Let’s break it down
Last week we published a post on Missouri Senator Josh Hawley’s op-ed in The New York Post condemning critical race theory and promoting his personal view of what young Americans should learn in history class. His views are encapsulated in...
The Author’s Corner with Dennis Rasmussen
Dennis Rasmussen is Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University. This interview is based on his new book, Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America’s Founders (Princeton University Press, 2021). JF: What led you to write Fears of...
The Author’s Corner with Lisa Tucker
Lisa Tucker is Associate Professor of Law at Drexel University. This interview is based on her new book, Hamilton and the Law: Reading Today’s Most Contentious Legal Issues through the Hit Musical (Cornell University Press, 2020). JF: What led you...
Editor of *The New York Times Magazines* addresses recent criticisms of the 1619 Project
You can find all of our posts on the 1619 Project here. Here is Jake Silverstein, editor of The New York Times Magazine: Most of the questions around our display language have centered on variations on a single phrase. In...
Sean Wilentz on Tom Cotton and slavery
The Princeton University American historian Sean Wilentz has been a harsh critic of The New York Times 1619 Project. But that doesn’t mean he is going to give Arkansas senator Tom Cotton a pass for his recent comments about slavery and the...
Engaging with the latest stuff on race and the founders coming from Liberty University’s Falkirk Center
Not all Christian colleges are the same. Some of you may recall a post in which I compared Messiah University to Liberty University. If you have a child considering a faith-based college I encourage you to read that post. Liberty...
The debate over America’s Christian founding continues
The Cato Institute hired four scholars–Mark David Hall, Steven Green, Thomas Kidd, and Brooke Allen–to debate issue. Follow along here. You can get my take here....
A Time for Citizenship
It’s not really that difficult to be a citizen in times like these. Health officials are telling us to stay six feet apart, wash our hands, avoid crowds, self-quarantine, and check on our older neighbors. If we want to get...
Episode 63: The 1619 Project
In August 2019, The New York Times Magazine published The 1619 Project, an attempt to reframe American history by “placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.” American historians have praised...
The Author’s Corner with Laura Lohman
Laura Lohman is Director of the Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence and Professor of Music at Queens University of Charlotte. This interview is based on her new book, Hail Columbia!: American Music and Politics in the Early Nation (Oxford...
The Author’s Corner with Carli Conklin
Carli Conklin is Associate Professor at The University of Missouri School of Law. This interview is based on her new book, The Pursuit of Happiness in the Founding Era: An Intellectual History (University of Missouri, 2019). JF: What led you to write The...
Joseph Ellis’s New Book is About the Founding Fathers
Ellis is a productive writer and historian, but I can’t keep up with all his books about the founding fathers. Here is a taste of Jeff Shesol’s review of his latest: American Dialogue: The Founders and Us: If the historian Joseph J....
The Author’s Corner with Jonathan Gienapp
Jonathan Gienapp is Assistant Professor of History at Stanford University. This interview is based on his new book The Second Creation: Fixing the American Constitution in the Founding Era (Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press, 2018). JF: What led you to write...