History

Despite the graft of a few pseudo-businessmen, the First Transcontinental Railroad was a profoundly life-enhancing demonstration of human ingenuity.

After a town named itself in honor of Benjamin Franklin, someone suggested that he acknowledge the tribute by supplying a church bell. Franklin, a "thorough Deist," proposed a different gift.

Monticello, by America's first native-born architect, Thomas Jefferson, is a window into the mind of this most complex and captivating of Founders.

Peter Anstey reveals how John Locke’s pessimism about a science of nature began evaporating in light of Isaac Newton’s achievements.

Salk and Sabin never worked together, but their combined efforts made possible a world in which almost no one suffers from polio.

Harvard professor Steven Pinker lays out a powerful case for cultural optimism in his book Enlightenment Now.

After reason had been smothered during the Dark and Middle Ages, Prince Henry helped to light the world with knowledge.

Hastings delivers well-founded judgments about war in prose that brings to life the experiences of those who fought them.

For all his pessimism, Conrad held that a life of unfaltering conviction is a meaningful one.

This self-made immigrant helped make the Revolution possible, then laid the foundation for America’s essentially capitalist financial policies.