The American innovations that catapulted the U.S. into a world superpower touch almost every facet of modern life. From the lightbulb to the airplane, to medical breakthroughs and the internet age, ...

For generations, historians have downplayed the American Revolution as a squabble between elites. But the revolution unleashed egalitarian forces its architects could neither control nor contain.

Thus far, our search for extraterrestrial life points toward Clarke’s former point, suggesting that our little blue dot is ...