This fascinating, behind-the-scenes story of Franklin Roosevelt's attempt to pack the Supreme Court recounts the major New Deal initiatives of FDR's first term and the rulings that overturned them, offering a reminder of the perennial temptation toward an imperial presidency that the founders had always feared.

"What does it mean to be an American? What are American ideas and values? American Enterprise, the companion book to a major exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, aims to answer these questions about the American experience through an exploration of its economic and commercial history. It argues that by looking at the intersection of capitalism and democracy, we can see where we as a nation have come from and where we...

"Today we associate liberal thought and politics with secularism. When we argue over whether the nation's founders meant to keep religion out of politics, the godless side is said to be liberal. But the role of religion in American politics has always been far more nuanced and complex than today's debates would suggest and closer to the heart of American intellectual life than is commonly understood. American democracy was intended by its creators...

Traces how Native Americans have defined, both domestically and internationally, democracy, citizenship, and patriotism, covering the activist struggle on reservations, during wartime, and in the courtroom to preserve the diverse culture of American Indians and assert an ethnic nationalism across the country.

Why Freedom Matters celebrates freedom in over 100 speeches, letters, essays, poems, and songs, all infused with the spirit of democracy. Here are the voices of presidents and slaves, founding fathers and hip-hop artists, suffragettes, civil rights workers, preachers, labor leaders, and baseball players. Inspired by the Declaration of Independence, the book is published in conjunction with The Declaration of Independence Road Trip, a 3 1/2-year cross-country...