Paul Ryan told The Washington Post this week that he wants to be a more compassionate conservative, but there is nothing new in his perspective on poverty.

Turner Classic Movies airs four classic vérité documentary films tonight about JFK that are worth watching.

Our senior writer remembers President Kennedy's assassination.

The conductor announced the death of President Kennedy to the audience -- and then gave them Beethoven.

The Democrat’s version of health insurance would have been cheaper, simpler and more popular, so why did we enact the Republican version?

Historian Peter Dreier shares why he’s optimistic about America’s future, including dynamic grass-roots initiatives around the country and, believe it or not, the radical politics of Dr. Seuss.

Thanks to an eleventh-hour settlement the US has supposedly escaped fiscal doomsday, but historian Bernard Weisberger writes that it feels more like a stay of execution than the end of a crisis.

Read an excerpt from historian Joyce Appleby's latest book: Shores of Knowledge: New World Discoveries and the Scientific Imagination.

The historian explains how a fascination with America led curiosity-driven Europeans to move beyond church dogma in the pursuit of knowledge that reshaped their understanding of the world.

What's the potential fallout from McCutcheon v. FEC, the campaign finance case currently before the Supreme Court?