The American Dream
About the standard by which Americans judge the success and failure of their experiment in self-government
25 Jan 20226min
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...
18 Jan 20228min
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...
11 Jan 20227min
The Fate of Liberty: American New Year 1777
From August to the last week of December, as David McCullough writes, "1776 had been as dark a time as those devoted to the American Cause had ever known." As the year ended, despite the stunning and ...
4 Jan 20226min
Resolution
Often our New Year's resolutions are lighthearted, and usually, the flesh being weak, they are fleeting. Before Valentine's Day or maybe even before Epiphany, we have slipped back into our old ways. B...
28 Dec 20218min
Tidings of Great Joy
At the time of the American founding, celebrations of Christmas in America varied widely, from Puritans and Quakers who shunned or ignored it, to other Protestants and Catholics who honored it in thei...
21 Dec 20217min
Days to Remember
Among many days worthy of remembrance, one that is often forgotten is June 8, 1789, when James Madison, in the first Congress under the newly ratified Constitution, addressed the House in a historic s...
14 Dec 20217min
Pearl Harbor and the Art of Politics
December 7, 2021 is the 80th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that brought America into World War II. It is one of many days in the American year that inspire reflection on the most ...
7 Dec 20217min
