History

John Portman designed buildings that amazed visitors and provided businesses with flexible, practical, and impactful spaces. As one memorial put it, his designs took “people away from the congestion of urban life to . . . spaces that are open and uplifting to the human spirit.”

None of the millions of people who witnessed the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986 will ever forget the wave of shock and grief that swept over the United States, and the world, on that day. To read Adam Higginbotham’s new account of the Challenger heroes is to be overwhelmed by a powerful sense of awe and astonishment.

Western civilization is the most life-giving culture of history. All human beings who care about human life on Earth—regardless of their race or gender—morally must celebrate this life-advancing civilization.

Antonin Dvořák managed to capture a beautifully American sense of life: the moment of dawning opportunity, the first glimpse of the potential for triumph, of the chance to prevail that has always been the New World’s greatest gift.

John Quincy Adams was a fount of moral courage who helped his country establish a noninterventionist foreign policy, end the War of 1812, defeat the “slaveocracy’s” gag rule, secure freedom for the Amistad captives, and give national prominence to the abolitionist cause.

Six Hundred Thousand Despots offers us a fresh view on slavery by one who not only experienced it, but evinced extraordinary heroism in escaping from bondage.

Today, Thomas Paine is widely celebrated for spearheading the cause of American independence with Common Sense, but that barely scratches the surface of his contribution.

Though little known today, Robert Ingersoll (1833–1899) was the post-Civil War era’s most potent orator and intellectual defender of reason and freedom.

Most of America's founders came to despair that things had gone dreadfully awry and that their creation would soon crumble. What can their disillusionment teach us about America's future?

The first comprehensive book on the Japanese war crimes trial, Judgment at Tokyo is an exceptional feat of political, legal, and historical scholarship.