An Excess of Democracy

Madison responded to Jefferson in October 1788. He denied that he had ever really opposed a bill of rights; he just didn’t think such “parchment barriers” were very important. He conceded rather halfheartedly that a bill of rights “might be of use, and if properly...

The False Identity of the American Founding

From today’s Wall Street Journal, Jason Riley addresses the 1619 Project in A Bid To Review the New York Times’s Bad History. Many of the top historians on America founding find the 1619 Project riddled with gross inaccuracies and ignores the reality that...

Historians Counter the 1619 Project

from Hotair,  Prominent Historians Criticize The NY Times’ 1619 Project As ‘Biased,’ ‘Anti-Historical’ An interview with historian James Oakes on the New York Times’ 1619 Project An interview with historian James McPherson on the New York Times’ 1619 Project An...

The Roots of American Partisanship

Gordon Wood’s most recent book Friends Divided, is a critical addition to the history of America’s founding.  The Republic for Which It Stands by Richard White and American Colossus by W.H. Brands are excellent histories of transitional periods, but Woods focuses on...

Jeffersonian End; Non Jeffersonian Means

From the WSJ Jason Willick interviews historian Gordon Wood, Polarization Is an Old American Story; Mr. Wood has written that most of the Founders “who lived on into the early decades of the nineteenth century expressed anxiety over what they had wrought.” Federalists...