Abstract: In July 1817, soon after the end of the War of 1812, the United States appeared to be emerging from a protracted period of dangerous political strife. In that context, when a new president—James Monroe, yet another president who hailed from Virginia, far from New England—arrived in the Boston area on a goodwill tour of the North, a local newspaper, although traditionally identified with the political opposition, greeted his presence with a headline declaring an “Era of Good Feelings.” Quickly picked up by other newspapers throughout the nation, the phrase was applied over the next several years to a wide range of matters, not just what looked like an end to bitter two-party politics. Historians, for their part, began applying the term to a period—whether defined in terms of a few months, all of Monroe’s two terms as president, or some other length of time—for which it seemed to say something about the era. But what? This article reviews the origins and varied uses of the phrase, then interrogates what it might reasonably mean and whether it should be retained, thrown out, or deployed for a teachable moment about the American past.