Why was Francis Drake in the Pacific in the 1570s? Was the Golden Hind bound on a trade voyage or was there a deeper political motive? The documents are lost, but David Cressy feels the historian can still speculate.
Stuart Andrews shows how Tom Paine not only popularised the idea of American independence but helped to keep the spirit of Union alive through seven years of war.
Adams was a remarkable man and the most able member of America's most celebrated political dynasty. He was a polymath, second only to Jefferson as the most intellectually gifted American President. As Maldwyn A. Jones explains, his presidency was to prove short and frustrating; his contribution to American political life, outstanding.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the longest-serving American President, has been accused of 'spineless government that betrayed the integrity of American ideals'. S.G.F. Spackman shows us that there are other ways of interpreting his policies.
