Civics

The federal government's decision to pay off the states' Revolutionary War debts required a new tax, sparking an armed rebellion.

See the origins of the foreign-born population of the United States from 1850 to 2020.

Explore the Opportunity Atlas and see which places in America offer the highest social mobility.

See which states contribute the most and least to the federal government.

Explore how 10,000 different American cities got their name. (Paywall may apply.)

Both Abigail and John Adams had complicated relationships with Thomas Jefferson.

Learn about how highways are designed and the geometry behind what makes them safe and efficient.

Explore a visual history of Air Force One.

Emanuel Leutze's painting 'Washington Crossing the Delaware' is one of the defining images of the Revolutionary War.

Ratified in 1868, the 14th Amendment guaranteed citizenship to all people born in the United States and required states to provide equal legal protection to all.

Future President Dwight D. Eisenhower's terrible experience on a cross-country road trip in 1919 helped inspire him to create the interstate highway system.

See where your state ranked in an analysis of the best public school systems in the US.

The Founding Fathers were divided in their reactions to the Boston Tea Party.

John Adams served as a lawyer for the British troops involved in the Boston Massacre, believing they deserved a fair trial.

America's first newspaper, 'Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick,' lasted only one issue.

Public libraries are funded by a mix of local taxes, state grants, and federal programs.

Benjamin Franklin donated the books that became the first true public library in the US.

NATO was formed in 1949 to deter Soviet expansion, prevent European militarism, and encourage political integration.

Voting rights expanded from 6% of Americans in 1789 to nearly all adult citizens today.

Here are some tips from Pew Research to help you distinguish between a good poll and an unreliable one.

1440 traces how the presidency transformed from the limited office envisioned by the Founders into today's powerful institution.

Meet the 9 justices currently serving on the US Supreme Court.

In 2025, Gen Z-led protests swept across Indonesia, Madagascar, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Peru, the Philippines, and Timor-Leste.

Watch Ken Burns' documentary series on the American Revolution, which tells its story through the lives of soldiers, civilians, enslaved people, Native nations, and international allies.

China is now viewed more favorably than the US in a majority of 36 countries surveyed this year.

See who appointed the Supreme Court's 116 throughout its history.

A coalition government forms when two or more political parties cooperate to govern in a multiparty system.

Experience famous images from the Watergate scandal, the defining US political crisis of the early 1970s.

See the religious breakdown of your state and how it compares to the rest of the country.

Every single American state constitution references God or the divine, though the federal Constitution does not.

Immigrants generated about $1.7T in economic activity in 2023 and paid roughly $652B in taxes.

Before 1965, US immigration law relied on nationality-based bans and quotas.

US immigrants shifted from primarily originating in Ireland and Germany to Mexico and India.

A Gilded Age moral crusader convinced Congress to pass a law banning "obscene, lewd or lascivious" materials from the mail that's central to today's debate over abortion pills.

American presidents did not travel abroad until Teddy Roosevelt visited the Panama Canal in 1906.

Benjamin Franklin founded America's first lending library, the Library Company of Philadelphia, in 1731.

Go behind the scenes of a 911 dispatch center.

Hear the story of the first paramedic services, which grew out of a community training program in 1960s Pittsburgh.

Listen to a widely lauded historical fiction podcast about the manhunt and power struggle that gripped the US after President Abraham Lincoln's assassination.

Mississippi didn't officially ratify the Thirteenth Amendment banning slavery until 2013, nearly 150 years after it passed.

Robert Smalls escaped slavery by piloting a stolen Confederate ship to freedom, then became an influential Black political leader during Reconstruction.

Early US attorneys general worked alone and often kept private law practices.

The Department of Justice spent $44B in 2024.

Explore the biographies and official portraits of every US attorney general since 1789.

Read an annotated 1866 essay by abolitionist Frederick Douglass, where he laid out his vision for reshaping America after the Civil War.

The Civil War introduced many technological advances to both society and warfare.

Abraham Lincoln received only 40% of the popular vote in the 1860 election, highlighting the deep divisions in the country on the eve of the Civil War.

Take a virtual tour of the White House's 132 rooms as they looked before the 2025 East Wing ballroom renovation.

Andrew Jackson kept a 1,400-pound block of cheese in the White House and then let members of the public eat at his final party while in office.