Franklin ended his life's story in 1757, when he was only fifty-one. He lived another thirty-three full, eventful, and dramatic years, some of the most dramatic years in American history, years in which Franklin was America's advocate in London, represented Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress, and was America's wartime ambassador to France. During these years Franklin also helped write our nation's Constitution and planned an American Empire...

"From one election cycle to the next, a defining question continues to divide the country's political parties: should the government play a major or a minor role in the lives of American citizens? The Declaration of Independence has long been invoked as a philosophical treatise in favor of limited government. Yet the bulk of the document is a discussion of policy, in which the founders outlined the failures of the British imperial government. Above...

"From a Pulitzer Prize winner, a powerful history that reveals how the twin strands of liberty and slavery were joined in the nation's founding. New attention from historians and journalists is raising pointed questions about the founding period: was the American revolution waged to preserve slavery, and was the Constitution a pact with slavery or a landmark in the antislavery movement? Leaders of the founding who called for American liberty are scrutinized...