American history - Page 3

The Jacksonian Temptation: Trump vs. Cruz

Is America witnessing the re-emergence of “Jacksonian” politics? With increasing regularity, pundits are harkening back to the cultural and political movement that brought frontier General Andrew Jackson to the White House in order to explain the changes taking place in the Republican Party. The hero of the Battle of New Orleans is more relevant than ever, it seems.

Getty Images

America Doesn’t Need ‘Presidents Day,’ It Needs the Constitution

On the third Monday of February, Americans celebrate George Washington’s Birthday, often inappropriately called “Presidents Day.” Even more unfortunately, this holiday doesn’t even fall on Washington’s Birthday due to the Uniform Monday Holiday Bill, which pushed numerous holidays to Monday in order to create more three-day weekends. Washington’s real birthday does not occur until February 22.

Getty Images

MLK Day: The Enduring Power of the Declaration and American Ideas

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is centered around the civil rights leader’s January 15 birthday and was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1983. Though there are many reasons for celebrating and debating his life’s legacy, Martin King Jr. is primarily remembered in the 21st century for his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

Getty Images

In Defense of Iconoclasm

On July 9, 1776, patriots in Manhattan, having heard the Declaration of Independence read aloud for the first time, marched down Broadway and tore from its perch the two-ton lead statue of King George III.

Wikipedia/public domain

HBO to Launch Andrew Jackson Miniseries Starring Sean Penn

Few Americans are more worthy of the big and small screen than Andrew Jackson—a poor, orphaned child of immigrants who fought in the American Revolution, moved to the frontier, and rose to become president of the United States. HBO is producing a six-hour miniseries based on Jon Meacham’s Pulitzer Prize winning book, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Getty Images

Why Is the Cato Institute Getting into Bed with the Hard Left to Smear US History, Keep Our Borders Open, and Diminish American Power?

The libertarian Cato Institute gets right down to it, in a New York Post op-ed titled, “Woodrow Wilson’s racism isn’t the only reason for Princeton to shun his name.” Yes, Cato went there. The libertarian outfit, which mostly seeks to identify with Republicans and conservatives on tax and spending issues, actually threw in with left-wing radical #BlackLivesMatter-type protesters on another important matter—defending the traditional understanding of US history. But as we shall see, the traditional understanding of US history means nothing to Cato.

Getty Images

The Left Purges Woodrow Wilson, But Not His Progressivism

The American Left has finally caught on that one of the leading lights of the early Progressive movement was a racist, segregationist, and generally unseemly fellow. Princeton’s Black Justice League protestors have urged that early-twentieth century President Woodrow Wilson’s “racist legacy” be acknowledged, and any mention of his existence purged from campus.

Getty Images

Learning What It Means to be American

Peter Schramm, the late Professor of Political Science at Ashland University, used to tell a moving story about his immigration to the United States. As a child fleeing communist-occupied Hungary, he asked his father where the family would go. “We are going to America,” his father replied. “Why America?” Peter asked. “Because, son,” his father answered, “we were born Americans, but in the wrong place.”

Getty Images

Killing Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin?

A lot has been written through the years about the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln, of John F. Kennedy, and of many others, and about the numerous conspiracy theories that lurk in the shadows of the official narratives.

Getty Images

GOP Presidential Field Fails the Founders

At least two Republican presidential candidates will stand with Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. During Wednesday’s CNN’s Republican presidential debate, candidates were asked about the proposed changes to the $10 bill and the woman with whom they would prefer to replace the country’s first treasury secretary.

Getty Images

Actress Julianne Moore: Anti-Palin, Anti-Gun, Anti-History

Julianne Moore’s life off-screen is quickly becoming a tale of everything the actress abhors. From Sarah Palin, to guns, to Civil War history relating to the Confederacy, Moore can’t keep from stating her opposition to certain people, places, and things.

Twitter/@_juliannemoore

14th Amendment Anniversary: Historian Richard Brookhiser Explains Lincoln in ‘Founder’s Son’

On this day, in 1866, the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution was finally certified by Secretary of State William H. Seward. The amendment guarantees that no state “shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”

Getty Images