It won’t surprise many who follow Glenn Beck to hear that his The Original Argument is one weird book. The premise: Those famous essays by John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison, gathered in 1788 as The Federalist, are so critical to understanding the nature of the U.S. Constitution, and therefore to renewing our nation [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Declaration of Independence’
Thomas Paine and the Democratic Revolutionaries: Egypt 2011, America 1776
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged 1776, American history, Christianity, Continental Congress, Declaration of Independence, democracy, Egypt, evangelicals, George Washington, historiography, John Adams, religion and the founders, Thomas Paine on February 16, 2011 | 5 Comments »
To the young democratic resisters in Egypt, some of whom I’ve heard saying in street interviews that they admire the American Revolution, I want to say something complicating. (No, I don’t literally think they’re taking time out of changing their country and the world to follow my blog — but hey, you never know!) This: [...]
Amendments, mobs, God, rights, guns, Pilgrims, Adams, etc.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged 1776, Alexander Hamilton, American history, American independence, Christianity, Christine O'Donnell, civil rights, Declaration of Independence, federal judiciary, Glenn Beck, James Madison, John Adams, left wing, liberals, liberty, Puritans, Samuel Adams, U.S. Constitution on December 30, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Responding here to a bunch of comments posted during recent months, since I don’t like burying and scattering the discussion: Elites versus the crowd. Working backward and starting with lacithedog’s comment on my “New Deal 2.0″ post. Laciethedog is reading Declaration and comments further on the “New Deal” post here. I appreciate the interest and [...]
New Deal 2.0 Crosspost
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged 1776, American history, American independence, Declaration of Independence, evangelicals, historiography, liberals, populism, Tea Party on December 7, 2010 | 1 Comment »
I have a brief post on New Deal 2.0 this morning, partly reviewing ideas in my far longer Boston Review piece on the 19th-century war between liberalism and populism, but partly tying that story back to the founding story I tell in Declaration: … Every time liberal commentators open their mouths, no matter what they [...]
Constitution Shmonstitution
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged American history, American independence, Christianity, Christine O'Donnell, Declaration of Independence, historiography, liberals, religion and the founders, Tea Party, U.S. Constitution on November 8, 2010 | 6 Comments »
This is the third in a series of posts about how people from Tea Partiers to pro-choice, anti-gun liberals invoke and rely on what they call “the Constitution,” often without being able to say anything very specific about it. The first post was on the First Amendment and religious freedom; the second was on the [...]
John Adams the Yankee v. Samuel Adams the Puritan
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged American history, American independence, Christianity, Continental Congress, Declaration of Independence, evangelicals, historiography, John Adams, religion and the founders, Samuel Adams, Thomas Paine on September 27, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Over at American Creation, there are a couple of related posts from the always thought-provoking Jonathan Rowe on topics with great appeal for me. One is a link to an older post, on Rowe’s other site The One Best Way, about John Adams’s liberal ideas on religion; the other is on the illiberality of the [...]
“Declaration” on C-SPAN “Book TV” 7/31, 8/1
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged 1776, American history, American independence, Declaration of Independence, film, William Hogeland on July 29, 2010 | 1 Comment »
The talk I gave on Declaration at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., is scheduled to air this weekend on C-SPAN “Book TV”: Sat. 7/31 at 4:00 PM and Sun. 8/1 at 8:00 P.M. A minor note for the record: I seem to recall the very able Doug Swanson, who put the event together, saying [...]
Founding-Era Reading List: Leftist History, Part 2
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged American history, American independence, Declaration of Independence, Dirk Hoerder, E.P. Thompson, Elisha P. Douglass, evangelicals, Georges Rude, historiography, Joseph Ernst, left wing, Marc Egnal, Stieg Larsson, Tea Party, Thomas Paine on July 24, 2010 | 1 Comment »
(Part One is here. ) From a modest but notable spike in page views for my first entry in this category, I get the feeling these lists might have some actual value. I’ll interlink them as I go. (The “Tory History” list, coming soon, will be briefer and might be interesting too. Others may follow [...]
Snopes on the Legends of John Hancock’s John Hancock
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Declaration of Independence, John Hancock on July 22, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Via J.L. Bell of Boston 1775, Snopes has an admirably accurate and fun piece from 2007 on fictions surrounding John Hancock’s huge signature on the famous copy of the Declaration — and related fictions about the signing as a whole, alluded to in Declaration and discussed in books by Garry Wills and Pauline Maier. Hancock [...]
