News, Media & Publications

The Panic of 1819 tells the story of the first nationwide economic collapse to strike the United States. Much more than a banking crisis or real estate bubble, the Panic was the culmination of an economic wave that rolled through the United States, forming before the War of 1812, cresting with the land and cotton boom […]

For anyone who missed East Anglia Prof. Kaeten Mistry and Kinder Institute Chair Jay Sexton’s February 5 conversation on the history of national security whistleblowing in the U.S., you can now access C-SPAN’s recording of the event using this link. In addition, you can find out more about Prof. Mistry’s current work with Dr. Hannah […]

Scholars have long debated the meaning of the pursuit of happiness, yet have tended to define it narrowly, focusing on a single intellectual tradition, and on the use of the term within a single text, the Declaration of Independence. In this insightful volume, Prof. Carli N. Conklin considers the pursuit of happiness across a variety […]

In 1862, a British merchant was killed by samurai at Namamugi, a quiet village near Yokohama. One year later, a British fleet bombarded Kagoshima to extract reparations, reducing much of this south-western city to ash. This captivating re-telling locates the story firmly within the wider context of British imperial expansion in East Asia. “The Ghost […]

The idea that the three branches of the U.S. government are equal in power is taught in classrooms, proclaimed by politicians, and referenced in the media. But, as David Siemers shows, that idea is a myth, neither intended by the Founders nor true in practice. Siemers explains how adherence to this myth normalizes a politics […]

Kinder Institute Endowed Chair and Professor of History Jay Sexton hopped on WNYC’s “The Brian Lehrer Show” on November 8 to discuss his new book A Nation Forged by Crisis: A New American History, published in October by Basic Books. You can listen to the full interview here.