The Reading Room

The Second Founding, a Reading Room essay

On The Second Founding

Michael Fowler

Eric Foner argues that the United States was founded twice, and that the second founding mattered as much as the first.

On The Second Founding

Michael Fowler

Eric Foner argues that the United States was founded twice, and that the second founding mattered as much as the first.

These Truths, a Reading Room essay

On These Truths

Michael Fowler

Jill Lepore set out to do something almost no historian still attempts: to tell the whole story of the United States in a single volume, organized around a single question.

On These Truths

Michael Fowler

Jill Lepore set out to do something almost no historian still attempts: to tell the whole story of the United States in a single volume, organized around a single question.

The Radicalism of the American Revolution, a Reading Room essay

On The Radicalism of the American Revolution

Michael Fowler

We tend to think of the American Revolution as a relatively conservative affair, a tax revolt that swapped a king for a congress while leaving society much as it was.

On The Radicalism of the American Revolution

Michael Fowler

We tend to think of the American Revolution as a relatively conservative affair, a tax revolt that swapped a king for a congress while leaving society much as it was.

The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, a Reading Room essay

On The Ideological Origins of the American Revo...

Michael Fowler

Bernard Bailyn answered a deceptively simple question and in doing so changed how we understand the founding: what were the revolutionaries actually thinking? The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution,...

On The Ideological Origins of the American Revo...

Michael Fowler

Bernard Bailyn answered a deceptively simple question and in doing so changed how we understand the founding: what were the revolutionaries actually thinking? The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution,...

American Slavery, American Freedom, a Reading Room essay

On American Slavery, American Freedom

Michael Fowler

Edmund Morgan posed the central paradox of American history in his title and then spent a book explaining it.

On American Slavery, American Freedom

Michael Fowler

Edmund Morgan posed the central paradox of American history in his title and then spent a book explaining it.

America's Constitution: A Biography, a Reading Room essay

On America's Constitution: A Biography

Michael Fowler

Akhil Reed Amar set out to do something surprisingly rare: to explain the Constitution clause by clause, in plain language, telling the story of where each provision came from and...

On America's Constitution: A Biography

Michael Fowler

Akhil Reed Amar set out to do something surprisingly rare: to explain the Constitution clause by clause, in plain language, telling the story of where each provision came from and...