Montesquieu shaped how Americans understood liberty, and his warning about a ‘tyranny of opinion’ speaks to today’s polarization.
Articles on US Founding Fathers
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A partisan judiciary, arbitrary power, officials beyond the reach of the people – these are the grievances that drove a revolution.
Voters have cast their ballots. Now the 2024 US presidential election comes down to the Electoral College.
Americans agree that democracy requires freedom of speech. But a large minority also thinks it’s acceptable to bar certain subjects or speakers from public debate.
The arrest of a former American president is unprecedented, but the nation’s founders anticipated the day would come.
Once owned by James Madison, the Montpelier plantation remains a model for presenting a full depiction of the life of the former president as well as the lives of those he enslaved.
The New York Times’ 1619 project and Donald Trump’s 1776 Commission had very different interpretations of US history. Similarly, the Bible has more than one narrative.
The term can be traced back to the Founding Fathers.
Three approaches were debated during the Constitutional Convention – election by Congress, selection by state legislatures and a popular election, though that was restricted to white landowning men.
The judicial theory has been a major talking point during the past three Supreme Court nominations. But what does it actually mean?
Fears of great wealth and the need for economic equality go back to the country’s origins.
With a Supreme Court ruling rejecting one of the founders’ two reasons for creating the Electoral College, only one reason remains: racism.
Trump’s backers say he is shielded from removal as no criminal offense took place. But this view may be at odds with the original intent of the impeachment clause.
A little-known provision of the Constitution might allow Trump to be reelected president in 2020 even if he is removed from office through the impeachment process.
The Framers of the Constitution knew their history, and sought to learn from it – and only to repeat the parts they liked.
A leading historian of constitutional thought says the contemporary Second Amendment debate is founded on serious misunderstandings.
The rule of law can take on different meanings depending whom you ask and where you are – but in the US it pretty much means one thing.
Trump’s budget would eliminate the National Endowment for the Humanities, breaking a tradition of funding humanities scholarship that goes back to the nation’s founding.
The first presidency began with a mandate to make America great. What’s changed?
Alexander Hamilton and the policies he pursued as America’s first treasury secretary set the US on a course of national unity. That’s just what Europe needs today.
Top contributors
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Interim Dean and James F. Ackerman Professor; College of Education, Purdue University, Purdue University
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William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College
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Professor of Law, New York University
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Reader in Early American History, King's College London
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Paul and Diane Guenther Chair in American History, Fordham University
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Associate Professor of English, Washington University in St. Louis
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Associate Professor of Philosophy and Law, Wayne State University; Institute for Humane Studies
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Professor of Geography, University of Mary Washington
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Professor of History, University of New Hampshire
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Derek H. Alderman is a Friend of The Conversation.
Chancellor's Professor of Geography, University of Tennessee
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Professor of Bible and Ancient Systems of Thought, Iliff School of Theology
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Professor of History, Truman State University
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Foundation Professor of Law and Political Science, Arizona State University
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Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
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Associate Professor of Geography, Georgia Southern University