Gordon Wood’s Revolution

Gordon Wood’s Revolution

Gordon Wood, who died on Sunday after being struck by a car, was as committed to the life of the mind as anyone I have known. I studied with him in the 1980s, served as his teaching assistant, and had the opportunity to share the stage with him in 1987. He was a...
George Washington and his Mother

George Washington and his Mother

When George Washington’s father died in 1743 responsibility for the family fell to his young widow, Mary Ball Washington. George, then just eleven, was the eldest of Mary’s five children. Mary was about thirty-four. Few historical characters were more...
What Did George Washington Look Like?

What Did George Washington Look Like?

We know what Washington looked like, or think we know, because we have seen dozens of portraits of him. We carry his image in our pockets, on our dollar bills and our loose change. And though the most familiar portraits by Gilbert Stuart, Charles Willson Peale, and...
News from Manassas

News from Manassas

Today we learned that one of the two data center developers involved in the key lawsuit about the future of Manassas battlefield will take their case on appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court (for the background, see The Crisis at Manassas Battlefield). The outcome of...