Paul Revere's Ride
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow has been called, "the most popular poet in American history." When Longfellow wrote, few Americans remained who had a living memory of the American Revolution. With his poem...
23 Feb 20217min
The Right Stuff
Chuck Yeager was born in West Virginia in 1923, was shooting and skinning squirrels and rabbits for family dinners by the time he was six, flying fighter planes in WWII by the time he was twenty, flew...
16 Feb 20216min
Sail On!
A poem comes to a poet, and he sends it orphaned out into the world, to take its chances. It never knows who or what it might inspire or how it might become part of the world it has stepped into. Henr...
9 Feb 20218min
To See the Right
By July 1776, American revolutionary John Dickinson maintained that he did not entertain any doubt whether America should declare independence, only when. He opposed, in his words, "only the time of t...
2 Feb 20217min
Honor and Oblivion
Only devoted students of history have heard of him, but in the years leading up to the American Declaration of Independence, John Dickinson, next to Benjamin Franklin, was probably the most famous Ame...
26 Jan 20217min
Sergeant York
Sergeant York, the highest-grossing movie of 1941, opened in American theaters in July and was still playing after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7. A biographical film starring Gary Cooper as...
19 Jan 20218min
Proclamation: American New Year 1863
On New Year's Day 1863, President Lincoln signed the proclamation he had promised a hundred days before. Lincoln understood better than anyone the constitutional challenges to emancipation. He took th...
12 Jan 20218min
Silver Markers on a Pew: American New Year 1942
January 1, 1942 had been set aside by President Roosevelt as a Day of Prayer. He had good reason for doing this; it was a dark time. The Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor just a few weeks before. The...
5 Jan 20217min
