Colonial powers built institutions not to develop the colonised world, but to consolidate imperial control, extract wealth ...

As we kick off the year commemorating the 250th anniversary of the establishment of the United States Army, we’ll reflect on the rich legacy of service, highlighting events that marked periods in our ...

On February 26, 1775, residents of Salem, Massachusetts, banded together to force the British to withdraw from their town during an oft-overlooked encounter known as Leslie’s Retreat “Here … we claim ...

From the very beginning, America had a pest problem. The first European ships to reach the New World were crawling with critters from around the globe. Like the migrating humans they followed, many of ...

I have posted several items on the idea of empire as it applies to American history. Although a generation ago, even to speak of American empire was contentious and provocative, today it is an ...

On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted a document introducing a new nation to the world, composed of 13 “free and independent states.” This Declaration of Independence, read to crowds ...

John Adams was born in the American colonies, and grew up as a subject of Great Britain. Beginning in the 1760s, soon after he had finished his legal studies, a series of political events forced him ...

That’s the opening of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Concord Hymn,” which commemorates the start of the Revolutionary War, which began 250 years ago Saturday. You probably know the political reasons behind ...

In early 1777, British General John Burgoyne hatched a plan to take over New York’s Hudson River Valley and end the American Revolution by cutting off the colonists’ maritime supply routes. Fort ...

A consequential act of defiance secured tea's place as perhaps the most iconic beverage of America's colonial era. The Boston Tea Party became an essential ingredient in the recipe for revolution in ...