USA

Traditionally regarded with near contempt, the office of Vice President was created almost by accident. The importance of the ‘Veep’ has grown considerably since. 

Bitter feelings between Loyalists and Patriots after the British surrender at Yorktown led to many skirmishes and retaliations.

Anne Ammundsen laments the lack of public access to a revelatory account of a young English officer who crossed swords – and words – with George Washington.

Greg Carleton explains how disastrous defeats for the Soviet Union and the US in 1941 were transformed into positive national narratives by the two emerging superpowers.

Andrew Boxer demonstrates the ways in which external events affected the struggles of African Americans in the 1950s and 1960s.

Viv Saunders reveals how sport and society are intertwined.

Patricia Cleveland-Peck looks at the long history of plant dispersal between the New World and the Old.

The American Civil War was not a simple struggle between slaveholders and abolitionists, argues Tim Stanley.

Thomas Ruys Smith looks at the impact of Hurricane Katrina in the light of the city’s historic troubles.

The American abolitionist and author Harriet Beecher Stowe was born on 14 June 1811.