The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency dedicated to limiting the power of big business, protecting consumer rights and ensuring fair competition. It’s the reason you can buy what you want, when you want it – providing you have the...
After almost three years of bitter conflict, the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain came to an end with the ratification of the Treaty of Ghent, but was the war a waste of time and...
How do you know that the politicians you vote for will represent your interests in office – and not those of powerful corporations? Well, there’s a law for that, and an independent regulatory agency: the Federal Election...
Established in 2002, the Department of Homeland Security might be the youngest of all the federal government’s departments, but its work to safeguard “the American people, our homeland, and our values” couldn’t be more...
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, aka NASA, has been at the forefront of science, technology, and space exploration since 1958. Its work remains an inspiration to millions of people around the...
The earliest major industrial project in the United States’ history, the Erie Canal connected East to West by water and enabled a new era of commerce, trade, and...
The Department of Transportation ensures the equitable and safe transport of goods and people along our roads, railways, skies, waterways and airspace. So, why did it take so long to come into...
Many government departments have a focused mission, but the Department of the Interior is known as the “Department of Everything Else.” So what are its responsibilities and how does it keep our country in...
The National Archives and Records Administration is an independent federal agency dedicated to the preservation of historic government records. With storage facilities across the United States, NARA’s contents give us an insight into our country’s...
The War of 1812 was a major conflict between the United States and Great Britain for control of the Northern Frontier. Often described as the second war of independence, in reality it was caused in large part by the ineffective foreign policies of two U.S....
Congressional Investigations have uncovered some serious wrongdoing over the past 200 years. But where does Congress get the power to conduct investigations and how has it used that power throughout U.S....
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the right to free speech. But when student journalists in Missouri wrote a series of articles on teen sex and divorce in 1983, their school appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court for the right to censor the content –...
During the War of 1812, British forces stormed into Washington, D.C. and set fire to the White House and other federal buildings. Rather than dent U.S. morale, the sacking of Washington served to galvanize the population against the...
The suspenseful 1948 presidential election exposed the consequences of flawed polls, as Truman’s astonishing victory upended expectations and forever changed how pollsters make...
The Pentagon Papers revealed how the U.S. government had lied to the public about its involvement in the Vietnam War. Leaked by the New York Times, this opened the door for future whistleblowers to expose the...
In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt’s bold creation of a new political party, the Bull Moose Party, challenged rivals Taft and Wilson, forever altering the political landscape of the United...
