Three flags and the violent Missouri frontier
Missouri's history as a frontier territory reveals a story of overlapping colonial claims, violent border conflicts, and cultural collisions that shaped the character of a state and influenced the tra...
24 Mar 54min
Three centuries of American Indian Wars
For three centuries, from the earliest colonial encounters through the closing of the frontier, warfare between European settlers and Indigenous peoples shaped the North American continent in ways tha...
24 Mar 53min
The messy reality of the United States Declaration of Independence
The United States Declaration of Independence is treated as sacred text, a pristine expression of universal ideals penned by Thomas Jefferson in a burst of revolutionary inspiration. The actual histor...
24 Mar 55min
The Truth Behind the Compromise of 1877
The Compromise of 1877 is one of the most consequential and misunderstood events in American history. The standard telling presents it as a straightforward bargain: Republican Rutherford B. Hayes rece...
24 Mar 43min
The Successful Failure of the Federalist Papers
The Federalist Papers are revered as one of the foundational documents of American democracy, a brilliant series of eighty-five essays arguing for ratification of the Constitution. But the fascinating...
24 Mar 35min
The Stolen Land Beneath Oklahoma Statehood
The iconic image of the 1889 Oklahoma Land Run, with settlers racing across the plains to stake their claims, is one of the most celebrated scenes in the mythology of American expansion. But beneath t...
24 Mar 47min
The Scientific Logic of Cherokee Myths
The Cherokee people developed a rich mythological tradition that Western scholars long dismissed as primitive superstition, but closer examination reveals something remarkable: many Cherokee myths con...
24 Mar 55min
The Rise and Fall of the ICC
The Interstate Commerce Commission, established in 1887 as the first federal regulatory agency in American history, was created to tame the railroad monopolies that were crushing farmers, small busine...
24 Mar 54min
