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An absorbing new book ponders the “mental maps” of the men who made America.

Ben Judge on America’s use of military force.

America’s Founders sought to define a national good that transcended local interests and prejudices. The national good included the common benefits of self-defense and prosperity that all Americans would realize by participating in a large, commercial nation able to hold its own in an often hostile world. But it was only with the constitutional rule of law that the higher purpose, or true national interest, of America could be realized. That purpose was to demonstrate to all mankind the feasibility of self-government and the suitability of justice as the proper and sustainable ground for rel...

As Howard Lamar approaches age 100, the eminent historian of the American West — and former Yale president — has as many fans as ever.

Gaddis Smith, a Yale historian who taught generations of policymakers and politicians the finer points of U.S. foreign policy and who, during the 1970s and ’80s, helped the university navigate between its desire to modernize and the powerful alumni who opposed such change, died Dec. 2 at his home in New Haven, Connecticut. He was 89.