Founding Fathers
Alexis de Tocqueville: The French Man Who Saw America’s Past, Present and Future
TweetShareShare “[It’s] the most comprehensive and penetrating analysis of the relationship between character and society in America that has ever been written.” That’s how one historian described Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America; a work considered among the most influential books of the 19th century. Published in two volumes between 1835 and 1840, Alexis de…
Read MoreThe Pain of Thomas Paine
TweetShareShareIn 1776 Thomas Paine was a “rock star” among American patriots. His writings inspired a loosely united thirteen colonies to revolt against the great British Empire. But Paine lived down to his name. He’d die a “penniless drunk in Manhattan,” scorned by most of the Founding Fathers. Only six people attended his funeral. Thomas…
Read MoreMolly Pitcher: The Revolutionary Woman Behind the Name
TweetShareShare Betsy Ross. Martha Washington. Dolly Madison. These were all great women of the American Revolution. But have you heard of Mary Ludwig Hays? She might be the bravest, strongest and most patriotic woman of them all. During the Revolution women were cut from a different cloth. Many women refused to stay home,…
Read MoreWashington’s Farewell: What America Still Hasn’t Learned
TweetShareShareGeorge Washington warned us in his Farewell Address of 1796. But we didn’t listen. We’re still deaf to his final words. George warned us of how political partisanship seeks to “acquire influence” and “misrepresent the opinions.” Washington eloquently admonished that the “fatal tendency” of any democracy is replacing the national will with “the will of…
Read MoreThe U.S. Capitol: America’s First Megachurch
TweetShareShareIt’s Sunday. On this day millions of Americans will attend a church, and many will attend a “megachurch” over 2000 members. And yet most of Americans, regardless of religious interest, are unaware of the first megachurch. At its zenith, this congregation attracted over 2000 people every Sunday–including politicians, businessmen, professors, socialites, common folk. They came…
Read MoreWe the People: The Inconvenient Process that Founded (and Still Guides) America
TweetShareShareWe the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. This preamble to…
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