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It’s not easy to write a book on lobbying when lobbyists don’t like to talk about what they do. And it’s particularly difficult when the lobbyists you’re writing about have been dead for one hundred and fifty years. This was the challenge I found myself...

I originally intended to write a book on the 1840 presidential campaign, often hailed as the first modern election. As I researched, however, it became clear that 1840 marked the culmination, not the beginning, of a set of election practices that we can...

Among the many unexpected findings that I uncovered while researching my book on the Second Seminole War (1835-1842), the most startling was the major role of malaria. Previous historians of this often-marginalized war have focused on traditional wartime...

The current statuary controversy across the United States highlights that many Americans do not appreciate the difference between historical facts and history. Historical facts are discrete definable pieces of evidence. History is the contextual narrative of...

The following is an adapted excerpt from Sharon Ann Murphy’s Other People’s Money: How Banking Worked in the Early American Republic. The decision to replace Andrew Jackson with Harriet Tubman on future $20 bills is laced with irony. Born into slavery in...

The following is an excerpt from chapter nine of Gregory Dowd's latest book, Groundless: Rumors, Legends, and Hoaxes on the Early American Frontier. Late in the Revolutionary War, in Passy, France, [Benjamin] Franklin lifted his pen in a most extraordinary...

The following is an excerpt from chapter eight of Gregory Dowd's latest book, Groundless: Rumors, Legends, and Hoaxes on the Early American Frontier. Check back with us every Thursday in the month of November for more Groundless excerpts highlighting word-of...

The following is an excerpt from chapter five of Gregory Dowd's latest book, Groundless: Rumors, Legends, and Hoaxes on the Early American Frontier. Check back with us every Thursday in the month of November for more Groundless excerpts highlighting word-of...

The following is an excerpt from chapter one of Gregory Dowd's latest book, Groundless: Rumors, Legends, and Hoaxes on the Early American Frontier. Check back with us every Thursday in the month of November for more Groundless excerpts highlighting word-of...

This post is part of our July “Unexpected America” blog series, focused on intriguing or surprising American history research from 1776 to today. Check back with us all month to see what new scholarship our authors have to share! (Photo Credit Nicholas Raymond...