Spring 2011

After assassinating President Garfield, a lunatic gunman mounted an insanity defense, which the jury--and the nation--rejected despite compelling evidence to the contrary

Young, naive, and irrepressible, a turn-of-the-20th-century Iowa teacher documented her coming of age in letters home

Strict codes of conduct marked the relationships of early American politicians, often leading to duels, brawls, and other—sometimes fatal—violence.

The nation's leading authority on the conflict explains why the Civil War still fascinates us

Artifacts pulled from the wreck of Blackbeard's flagship Queen Anne's Revenge offer a glimpse into the bloody decades of the early 18th century, when pirates ruled the Carolina coast