Genealogy · 7 min read
Census Records as Historical Evidence
What decennial censuses reveal about American families over time.
Read article →Citizenship & Law · 12 min read
The Naturalization Act of 1790
How the First Congress defined naturalization, citizenship, and membership in the new American republic.
Read article →Citizenship & Law · 15 min read
Birthright Citizenship and the 14th Amendment
From the children of slaves to birth tourism: the Citizenship Clause, Dred Scott, Wong Kim Ark, and the modern debate.
Read article →Colonial America · 14 min read
Colonial Settlement Patterns, 1607–1776
How generations of settlers survived a dangerous frontier, built permanent communities, and developed a distinctly American identity before independence.
Read article →Settlement & Expansion · 18 min read
Westward Expansion and Its Peoples
How generations of migrants crossed a dangerous and contested continent, built new communities, and encountered the peoples already living there.
Read article →Constitution & Federalism · 18 min read
Did the Civil War Make Secession Illegal?
The Civil War settled secession by force. Texas v. White later declared unilateral secession unconstitutional, but left open the possibility of revolution or consent of the states.
Read article →Genealogy & Family History · 10 min read
Reading a Ship Manifest
A practical guide to using immigration records to trace family origins and begin building a documented family history.
Read article →Culture · 6 min read
Language, Food, and American Identity
How immigrant cultures reshaped what feels distinctly American.
Read article →Indigenous · 9 min read
Sovereignty and the Meaning of Nation
Understanding tribal sovereignty and Indigenous perspectives on nativeness.
Read article →Historical Documents · 8 min read
Reading the Fourteenth Amendment
An annotated look at one of the most consequential passages in American law.
Read article →Research · 5 min read
How We Verify Historical Claims
Our editorial method for sourcing and reviewing every article.
Read article →Culture · 7 min read
Assimilation, Pluralism, and the Melting Pot
Competing metaphors for how newcomers become part of a nation.
Read article →History · 8 min read
The Immigration Act of 1965
How abolishing national-origin quotas reshaped modern America.
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