The Reading Room

Team of Rivals, a Reading Room essay

On Team of Rivals

Michael Fowler

Doris Kearns Goodwin found a fresh way into the most written-about figure in American history by looking at the men around him.

On Team of Rivals

Michael Fowler

Doris Kearns Goodwin found a fresh way into the most written-about figure in American history by looking at the men around him.

Reconstruction, a Reading Room essay

On Reconstruction

Michael Fowler

Eric Foner wrote the definitive history of America's unfinished revolution, the years after the Civil War when the country tried, and then abandoned the attempt, to build a genuine multiracial...

On Reconstruction

Michael Fowler

Eric Foner wrote the definitive history of America's unfinished revolution, the years after the Civil War when the country tried, and then abandoned the attempt, to build a genuine multiracial...

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,...