Slavery Abolition

Most Americans assume that the Thanksgiving holiday has always been associated with the Pilgrims, Indians, and their famous feast. Yet that connection is barely 150 years old and is the result of white Protestant New Englanders asserting their cultural author…

Reconstruction: America After the Civil War a PBS documentary series produced by Henry Louis Gates Jr. Library of CongressA reunion of former slaves at the Cosmopolitan Baptist Church, Washington, D.C., 1917. From left to right, Lewis Martin, 100; Martha El…

—In which John Green ACTUALLY teaches about the Civil War. In part one of our two part look at the US Civil War, John looks into the causes of the war, and the motivations of the individuals who went to war. The overarching causes and the individual motivatio…

Editor's Note This article was originally reported and published in 2014 and has been updated and reformatted in 2019. (CNN) Death -- life's greatest unknown, and yet it comes to all of us. This perhaps explains our fascination not just with death, but, in…

I am a Democrat, but I have always felt that strong opposition parties were good for the country. For this, I have sometimes been harshly criticized by other Democrats. Such criticism could be confusing. Aren't Americans supposed to promote bipartisanship? In…

Americas Founders tolerated slavery as a necessary evil, whereas the Confederacy was built on the premise that it benefited all.Abortion activists have long claimed that to be pro-choice is not to be pro-abortion. But the gradual change in the rhetoric of the…

Abortion activists have long claimed that to be pro-choice is not to be pro-abortion. But the gradual change in the rhetoric of the Democratic party in particular seems to belie that claim. Democrats have shifted their position on abortion from safe, legal, a…

Phil Deloria, the acclaimed historian who is the son of the famous Vine Deloria, reminds us in this book review that there are far greater problems with Thanksgiving than just the culinary crimes of tasteless turkey breast and yams with marshmallows on top. I…

Paul Gottfrieds excellent anthology of essays on American conservatives chronicles a key phenomenon of our times. Understa…

Theres a fabled moment from the Battle of Fredericksburg, a gruesome Civil War battle that extinguished several thousand lives, when the commander of a rebel army looked down upon the carnage and said, It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too…